
Class U a IS(^/ 

Book 

Copyright li?_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 



BETTER 
RURAL SCHOOLS 



By 
GEORGE HERBERT BETTS 

M 
THE MIND AND ITS EDUCATION, THE RECITATION. ETC. 

OTIS EARLE HALL 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, INDIANA 



ILLUSTRATED BY 

PHOTOGRAPHS AND CHARTS 



INDIANAPOLIS 
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 



Copyright 1914 
The Bobbs-Merrill Company 






PRESS OF 

BRAUNWORTH Si CO. 

BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN, N. V. 



JAN 21 I8!4 

(QCl,A3GiGV0 



PREFACE 

The rural school presents the most important problem 
in American education. In it are more than six million 
children coming from one great industry, agriculture — 
the most fundamental and important of all industries. 
Under present conditions this occupation calls for an 
unusual degree of intelligence and skill. It demands the 
highest type of business management and industrial 
ability. And with the success of agriculture is linked the 
welfare of every American citizen, whatever be his status 
or vocation. 

Yet the rural school, the sole educational opportunity 
of most of our agricultural population, has been grossly 
neglected. In the midst of universal progress, it has been 
allowed to lag behind town and city schools. Abandoned 
to relative inefficiency, it has failed to hold the loyalty and 
support of its constituency. The victim of changing 
social and industrial conditions, it has dwindled in size, 
diminished in influence, and lost step with the spirit of 
the times. 

But the center of emphasis in education is changing — 
has changed. The great forces recently set at work to re- 
organize and vitalize country life have found the condi- 
tion of the rural school to be one of the chief causes of 
decay. In it they have also discovered one of the most 
promising instruments of reclamation and reform. The 
rural school will come into its own. The great educa- 
tional agencies of the country — national, state and pri- 
vate — are organizing to give it every help at their com- 



PREFACE 

trrand. Commercial interests are offering cooperation 
and support. Legislatures are shaping laws to its advan- 
tage and placing increased revenues at its disposal. Best 
of all, this accession of public interest is stimulating the 
patrons themselves to desire and demand better schools. 

This book is an attempt to interpret the rising tide of 
interest in the rural school, and to offer whatever help 
it may in guiding the energy in fruitful lines. It is 
written especially for rural teachers and administrators 
in their reading circles, normal schools and study classes. 
For, while others may plan and project, it is the teachers 
and their official guides who must finally put these plans 
and projects into execution. They are the ones who are 
in immediate contact with the rural school and its prob- 
lems ; they meet pupils and patrons face to face and know 
their attitudes and modes of thought. And reforms are 
not carried out by resolutions or legislative decrees, but 
by individual influence and personal effort. 

The book is simply written, that it may be easy and 
attractive reading. It contains much of illustration, inci- 
dent and application, that it may be immediately helpful. 
It touches on such questions as the teacher must daily 
meet, that it may be practical. It presents many pictures 
of school conditions, that certain lessons may be doubly 
enforced. The weaknesses of present rural schools have 
been frankly exposed, but not for the purpose of mere 
faultfinding. Criticisms are often sharp, but never in 
a carping spirit. The motive of the entire volume is con- 
structive. Faults are revealed only to show the means 
by which they may be remedied, and mistakes are con- 
demned only to suggest the way to rectify them. 

The scope of the book is broad. It shows how the 
call for higher efficiency in rural schools is a part of a 
universal demand upon education. It interprets the rela- 



PREFACE 

Uon of tHe curriculum to efficiency iii education, and 
shows the reorganization necessary in the rural-school 
tourse of study. Because the teacher is the central factor 
in the school, almost one-fourth of the chapters are given 
over to every-day problems that confront the teacher in 
the schoolroom. Consolidation is looked upon as the 
most important single factor in improving rural educa- 
tion, hence this subject is accorded detailed and extensive 
consideration. The administration of rural schools, in- 
cluding forms of supervision, financial support and social 
points of contact with the community, is fully treated. 
Schoolhouses and their equipment, the care of school 
buildings and the preparation and equipment of school 
playgrounds are discussed. The responsibility of the 
rural school for the health of its pupils and community 
is recognized. Finally, the outlook for rural education 
is examined in the light of present tendencies and oppor- 
tunities, and the teacher's part defined in the movement 
for better rural schools. 

George Herbert Betts, 

Mount Vernon, Iowa. 

Otis Earle Hall, 

Crawfordsville, Indiana, 



CONTENTS 

Part I 

THE DEMAND FOR BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

I The New Outlook 1 

The rural school an important factor in American education — ■ 
Early school conditions — The social side of old-time schools — 
Environment of pioneer schools — Changes in industrial condi- 
tions — New standards demanded in schools — New standards in 
agriculture — Farm children's need of education — Can the rural 
school meet its demands — Rural and town schools compared — 
Present status of rural schools — Inadequate to the needs of 
rural life — The farmer can support better schools — The oppor- 
tunity of the rural school — Encouraging signs. 

II The Call for EpFiaENCY 16 

Efficiency the demand of the age — Difficulty in measuring 
school efficiency — Drawing power a measure of efficiency — Rural 
school fails to draw and hold pupils — Influence of teacher in 
holding pupils — Rural-school year short — Attendance year 
shorter — Results of short-time attendance — The waste of time 
through poor attendance — The type of education as a measure 
of efficiency — Duty of the rural school to its patrons — The rural 
school and better farming — Education in agriculture through 
rural schools — The rural school and public health — Teaching of 
hygiene in rural schools — Loyalty as a measure of efficiency — ■ 
Support ready when returns are assured — The rural school as 
a social center — Changes demanded by new ideals. 

Part II 
THE CURRICULUM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 

III The Old Curriculum 43 

Need of a broader and richer curriculum — Mere literacy no 

longer a test — Things that should be known by rural boys and 
girls — ^Vital subjects lacking in rural schools — Old standards 
still prevail in many schools — Studies not related to life — Use- 
less versus useful knowledge — Time wasted upon senseless drill 
pn useless matter — Curriculum still meager and narrow — In- 



CONTENTS 

dustrial training in old-time home — Old-time training in domes- 
tic science — The boy and the old home workshop — Industrial 
changes in the modern home — The school must take over func- 
tions lost from home — The school must train the hand — Manual 
training, agriculture and domestic science to be added — Music 
and art to have a place — View-point of the old subjects to be 
changed — Changes in teaching reading, arithmetic and other 
subjects — How time is to be secured for new subjects. 

IV The Reorganized Curriculum 60 

The new curriculum not to neglect fundamental subjects — 
Point of emphasis to be changed — School interests related to 
home interests — Core of new curriculum — Plan of new curricu- 
lum — ^Vocational subjects alone not enough — Difference between 
old and new curricula — Stupefying effects of old method — The 
new curriculum connects with home activities — Reading, language 
and number related to concrete subjects — Teaching of the fun- 
damentals vitalized — Not discipline but efficiency the aim — 
Nature study the child's starting-point — Geography and agri- 
culture have foundation in nature study — Home economics be- 
gun in the elementary school — Habits and hygiene of first 
importance — Manual training a part of the curriculum — Teaching 
of music and art — History to deal with life of people — Im- 
portance of concrete civics. 

V Correlation 11 

Rapid growth of rural-school curriculum — Danger of over- 
working teacher and pupil — Principles underlying revision of 
curriculum — The principle of correlation — What is correlation — 
Correlation stimulates interest — Correlation must be natural — 
Immediate interests the natural basis of correlation — Saving 
time through correlation — Correlation leads to efficiency — Cor- 
relation with basis of nature study — Points of contact reached 
through nature study — A lesson on birds — Correlation with ag- 
riculture as a basis — Agriculture and arithmetic — Correlation 
with a basis of home economics — Geography and correlation — 
Correlation requires expert teaching. 

VI Vocational Training 93 

Rural children dropping out of school too early — Remedy lies 

in vitalizing school — Difference in attitude of rural and city 



CONTENTS 

child — Growth of vocational education — Responsibility of rural 
school for vocational education — Rural school equal to the 
task — Vocational studies must be practical — Rural-school limita- 
tions in vocational training — Possibilities of one-room school — 
Community cooperation — "Home project" work — Types of home 
projects — The Massachusetts plan — Success attained — Home proj- 
ects without supervision — The Oregon plan— The agricultural- 
club movement — Department of Agriculture and clubs — Success 
of club movement — Club prize winners — Reflex influence on 
schools — Influence on pupils — Response to "special" schools — All 
rural schools to be vocational. 



Part III 
THE TEACHER AND THE RURAL SCHOOL 

VII The Spirit of the Teacher 1 15 

The teacher chief factor in the school — Power to hinder or 

promote progress — The teacher must embody educational ideal — 
The spirit of the teacher — A teacher with the wrong attitude — 
Results accomplished by a devoted teacher — Difficult problems 
to be met — Meeting the "dare" of hard conditions — Rural school 
no place for half-hearted work — What enthusiasm can accom- 
plish — The teacher who feels above his work — An example of 
helpfulness — The reward of helpfulness — The teacher's attitude 
toward his people — A cure for impatience with the humdrum — 
Elementary grades the most important — Demand for choice 
qualities in rural teacher — The teacher's view of his vocation. 

VIII Scholastic Preparation 131 

Need of scholastic preparation — ^The teacher must embody 
the truth he teaches — The blind attempting to lead the blind — 
The cost of ignorance — New demands upon teachers — A worthy 
example — Opportunities open to teachers — A high-school edu- 
cation the minimum — Scholastic requirements no hardship. 

IX Professional Training 140 

Recent demand for professional training — Example of lack 
of professional training — Teaching an art — Growth of normal 
training — The function of the normal school — Need for obscr- 



CONTENTS 

vation work — Training to teach newer subjects — Advantages to 
the professionally trained teacher — Professional training in- 
cludes the child — The unkind teacher who did not understand 
children — Teaching children instead of subjects — Influence of 
the strong teacher. 

X Teacher and Community 152 

The community feeling of ownership in the teacher — The 
teacher owes full service — Knowledge of community essential — 
Failures from lack of knowing community — An incident of two 
famous educators — The teacher must identify himself with the 
community — Interests must include the farm — The teacher must 
know farm children — Teachers must expect limitations — City 
methods not adapted to country — Method of approach — True 
friendship sure to meet response — A practical test of helpful- 
ness — The teacher's standards of conduct — The teacher should 
not offend community standards — The social versus the legal 
point of view. 

XI Organization 165 

The three problems of the rural teacher — The rural teacher 
meets difficulties alone — What it is to organize a school — What 
organization must accomplish — Importance of right beginnings — 
Preparation for the opening day — Work preliminary to organi- 
zation — Importance of the daily program — The initiation of a 
definite policy — The school routine — The regulations to be 
adopted — The use of rules — Principles of rural-school classifica- 
tion — The standard classification now in use — The basis of classi- 
fication — Knowledge of classification demanded of the teacher — 
Questions to be met in classification — Principles underlying the 
program — The sequence of studies — The distribution of time — 
Classes crowded out — Causes producing too many classes — Cor- 
relation a remedy for multiplicity of classes. 

XII Management 181 

The teacher measured by his management— Rural teacher's 
sole responsibility in management— What managing a school 
means — Spirit of cooperation necessary — Cooperation refers to 
the method of control — Principles of control to come from the 
school— The futility of scolding — Good management secures 
obedience — Disobedience begets contempt for law — Obedience 



CONTENTS 

learned only by obeying — Good management requires uniform- 
ity — Tendency of schools to run down — Self-control necessary 
to management — An example of hasty judgment — Control with 
reference to complaints — Danger points in management — Bois- 
terous play in schoolroom — Play should be out-of-doors — Whis- 
pering about the lessons — No truce with note-writing — Unneces- 
sary confusion indicates poor management — A cure for ques- 
tions — Injury to public property to be made good — American 
tendency toward vandalism — Children's morals to be guarded. 

XIII Good Teaching 197 

Teaching the highest function of the school — Meeting the 
child on his own plane — Need of teaching how to study — The 
German method — Good teaching encourages the child — The value 
of good cheer — The contagion of interest — The point of contact 
with the child — Effects of point of view — Principles governing 
the recitation — The recitation must have life — Every pupil must 
take part — Each to receive his share of attention — The question 
as a method of teaching — Questioning a fine art — Principles of 
good questioning — The recitation demands high standards — 
Distractions fatal to the recitation — Physical conditions a fac- 
tor — Importance of teacher's attitude — Good teaching requires 
careful assignment. 

Part IV 

CONSOLIDATION AND RURAL-SCHOOL 
EFFICIENCY 

XIV The Movement Toward Consolidation 215 

Changes necessitating consolidation — Loss in efficiency 

through small schools — Origin and extent of consolidation — 
Hopeful signs — Leading educators support the movement — Not 
a fad — Present status — Methods of changing to consolidated 
system — Legislation bearing on it — Consolidated and union 
schools — Consolidation not limited by locality — Not a panacea — 
One-room schools not to be neglected. 

XV The Consolidated Rural School 228 

The three types of rural schools — Place of district schools — 
Union schools not the highest type — Looking forward to con- 



CONTENTS 

solidated type — Consolidation allows grading — Grading provides 
goal for pupils — The waste in very small classes — Better dis- 
tribution of teaching time — Consolidation allows extension of 
curriculum — Better buildings and equipment — Additional facil- 
ities required by new subjects — Consolidated schools demand 
better teachers — Better supervision in these schools — Consoli- 
dated schools keep pupils longer — Economy not the reason for 
consolidation — A comparison of relative cost — Cost not the true 
measure — Response of patrons to advantages of consolidation — 
Valid criticisms — Universal loyalty. 

XVI The Consolidated School and the Community 246 

Danger from social stagnation — Little meeting in social 

groups — Social opportunities lacking for young people — Social 
lure of the city — Moral dangers growing out of social stagna- 
tion — Lapses due to lack of social meeting places — The school 
the natural social center — Only the consolidated school equal to 
social demands — Ready response of the people — Illinois play 
festivals — Social center in an Indiana consolidated school — The 
John Swaney school as a neighborhood center — To supply a 
social center a chief function of consolidated school. 

XVII The Rural High School 258 

Growth of the American high school — The high school still 
rare in rural communities — High-school training necessary for 
farm children — Free high schools not generally accessible — Rural 
high schools follow consolidation — The township high school not 
the solution — The county high school not accessible — The curri- 
culum of the rural high school — Louisiana agricultural high- 
school course — Curriculum of Colebrook Academy — Disciplinary 
subjects omitted — Equipment of the rural high school — Exam- 
ples of successful rural high schools — The Farragut, Tennessee, 
high school — The Manassas, Virginia, high school — Outlook for 
the rural high school. 

XVIII The Consolidated Building and Equipment 272 

'I Consolidation is improving buildings — Many still too small^ 

The high school to be anticipated in building — Necessity for 
ample grounds — Building to be of permanent material — Mistake 
of economizing in equipment — The three-teacher building — The 
basement — Heating — Water supply — Lighting system — Larger 



CONTENTS 

buildings — ^^Gymnasium — School buildings more costly — The 
newer branches increase the expense — Taxation burden not over- 
heavy — The site for a consolidated school — Donations not to 
influence selection of site — Value to community. 

XIX How TO Effect Consolidation 291 

Factors interfering with consolidation — Dollars versus edu- 
cation — False virtues ascribed to district school — Failure to see 
that times have changed — Leaders misunderstood and mis- 
judged — Conditions fundamental to consolidation — Mistake of 
attempting the impossible — The necessary financial foundation — 
County or township better unit than local district — A prelim- 
inary campaign necessary — County superintendant natural leader 
of campaign — Three important groups of influences — Teachers 
most powerful influence for consolidation — Teachers enthusiastic 
once they understand it — Arguments to be used in the cam- 
paign — Fundamental weaknesses in district school — Consolidated 
schools also hold pupils better — One-room school does not lead 
to more education — Campaign must be suited to local condi- 
tions — Value of public meetings — Important influence of the 
first consolidated school — Selecting the right superintendent. 

XX The Transportation of Pupils 308 

Success of consolidation dependent on public transportation — 

Public distrust of transportation not well founded — Four im- 
portant factors — Difficulty of mapping routes — Unreasonable pa- 
trons — The length of the route — Good roads a factor in length 
of route — Transportation largely dependent on good roads — 
Present tendency to improve roads — Better methods of road 
building — The automobile as a means of transportation — 
Qualifications required of any conveyance — The care of school 
wagons — School wagons to be owned by the corporation — 
Qualifications of the driver — The driver and his schedule — Typi- 
cal schedules made by drivers — Driver's contract and bond. 

Part V 
RURAL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

XXI The Supervision of Rural Schools 329 

Waste from lack of supervision — Rural schools especially 
need supervision — County superintendent and supervision — Too 



CONTENTS 

great a territory to cover — Lack of clerical help; many duties- 
Low salary a handicap — Discrimination against county superin- 
tendent on salary — County superintendent chosen by political 
methods — Length of term too short — Office should be freed 
from limitations — Appointment by non-partisan board — Qualifica- 
tions for the office to be advanced — Scholastic training — Sym- 
pathy virith country life — Opportunities ahead of the county 
superintendent — County superintendent must be given assist- 
ance — Beginnings of industrial supervision — Success of the 
plan — Growth of industrial supervision — New subjects make 
closer supervision necessary — The state superintendent an im- 
portant factor in supervision — Special state supervisors — Hope- 
ful outlook for rural supervision. 

XXII Financial Support 347 

Willingness to pay a test of appreciation — Present rural pros- 
perity — The rural school has not shared prosperity — The poverty 
of the rural school — Unsuitable equipment and salaries — Humil- 
iating comparisons — Efficiency dependent on salary — Signs of 
improvement — Economic basis not lacking — Methods of levying 
school tax — Local taxation — Larger taxing unit desirable — State 
aid to schools — A combined county and state system best — Taxes 
depend on public sentiment — Need of an educational revival. 

XXIII The Care of Buildings and Grounds 364 

Factors demanding change of methods — Rural teachers and 

janitor service — Whole of teacher's time and energy belong to 
teaching — Time required for preparation or recreation — Teach- 
ing an unhealthful occupation at best — Better hygienic standards 
require additional janitor service — Modern buildings demand 
more care — Care required by school grounds — Loss of efficiency 
through teacher-janitors — Health endangered by neglect — Other 
defects from lack of oversight — Equipment and apparatus out 
of order — Need of expert care of heating apparatus — Employing 
the janitor — Provisions of janitor's contract. 

XXIV The One-Room School 379 

The one-room school still a necessity — Capable of improve- 
ment — Need for a standard of efficiency — Standardizing rural 
schools — The Illinois plan — Requirements of a standard school — 
Standards in the school — Standards for superior schools — 



CONTENTS 

School equipment — ^The curriculum — Possibilities of the one- 
room school — Requirements of buildings — The floor — Black- 
boards — School furniture — Schoolroom heating — Need of a base- 
ment — Decorating the schoolroom — Care of school belongings — 
The school library — Hygienic conditions — The water supply — • 
Necessary equipment — Attractive surroundings — School yard, 
trees and shrubs — School gardens — The playground — The school 
as a social center — These demands both reasonable and feasible. 

XXV School Hygiene 400 

New interest in public health — Medical inspection of schools — 
Rural school to set health standard — Low hygienic standards — 
Duty of school toward health — The air of the schoolroom — 
Effects of open-air schools — Air space required — Ventilation and 
disease — Effects of temperature — Hygiene and cleanliness — 
Dusting — Water and drinking utensils — The hygiene of light- 
ing — Attention to commonplace things — Indiana State Board of 
Health requirements. 

XXVI Personal Hygiene 415 

Personal nature of hygiene — Theory versus practise — Health 

the right of the child — As the twig is bent — Hygiene of the 
mouth — Adenoids — Diseased tonsils — Hygiene of bathing — Hy- 
giene of food — Hygiene of the eye — Bodily postures — Making 
instruction effective — The teacher's health — Teacher's liability to 
disease — Conditions of physical strain — The teacher's eye de- 
fects — Nutrition and the teacher's health — The teacher's margin 
of safety — Health and efficiency. 

XXVII The Playground 428 

Country life and play — Rural children do not know how to 
play — Why play is so necessary — Play a moral safeguard — Evils 
resulting from lack of play — Children should be taught to play — 
The school playground — Grounds necessary for rural schools — 
Placing of the school building — Preparation of the play- 
grounds — Play apparatus — The sand bin — School swings — The 
see-saw — The slide — Installation of the slide — The horizontal 
bar — Equipment for games — Indoor baseball — Volley ball — The 
running track — Jumping pits — Cost of apparatus and how met — 
The teacher must know plays and games. 



CONTENTS 

Part VI 

THE OUTLOOK FOR RURAL EDUCATION 

XXVIII The New Education 447 

Greatness of American enterprise — Magnitude of our school 
system — Origin of our public schools — Early educational prog- 
ress — Profound changes now under way — ^A new interest in 
education — Present need of leadership — The teacher's need of 
vision — Vital questions demanding answer — Why we must an- 
swer such questions — What is the new education — Crucial ques- 
tions asked of education — Changing meaning of education — 
Dawn of present concept of education — Influence of democracy 
on education — New demand for efficiency — Education the road 
to efficiency — Practical meaning of efficiency — Education and vo- 
cations — An increased amount of education demanded — Effects 
upon the rural school — Practical subjects winning place — New 
standards of teaching — The teacher's position of power. 

XXIX The Promising Future 463 

Future of rural education promising — Rural schools the means 

of progress — Rural schools now the center of interest — Recent 
legislation promoting rural education — Farmers awakening to 
opportunity of rural schools — Education for farm must be had 
in rural schools — Rural school of future to attract boys and 
girls — Consolidated school to be the typical rural school — Rural 
school to conserve health — Future school to promote good 
housing — Dress to receive attention — Rural school to aid farm- 
ing — Rural school to minister to art and recreation — To culti- 
vate the esthetic impulse — The rural school to become a center — 
Rural schools to secure better teachers — Rural schools a good 
investment. 

XXX Present Opportunities 476 

Need of wise action — All forces needed — ^Dangers from dis- 
couragement — Dangers from taking success for granted — All 
objections to be met fairly — Teachers the most powerful fac- 
tor — The public require information — Teachers must themselves 
be informed — ICnowledge of school buildings — Knowledge of 
new legislation — Knowledge of consolidation — Importance of 



CONTENTS 

county superintendent in rural progress — No place for tHe ultra- 
conservative — The part of the state superintendent and his super- 
visors — Influence of the press for rural education — Part taken 
by the federal government — The outlook. 

Bibliography « 491 

Index 501 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

The Consolidated Rural School .... Frontispiece 

The Wheat Cradle of Earlier Days 4 

The Twentieth-Century Reaper at Work .... 6 

Modern Farming in the Middle West 10 

A Department That Should be Represented in Every 

Rural School 54 

New Center of Correlation in Rural-School Curriculum 64 

A Practical Lesson in Agriculture 70 

A Manual Training Class and What It Made . . 96 

A High School Class in an Agricultural Laboratory . 96 

Judging Poultry at a Rural School 100 

Coop and Brooder Made by Boys of a Consolidated School 100 

Lester Bryant, Champion Boy Corn Grower . . . 106 

District School Building 216 

State Superintendents Leaving Crawfordsville, Indiana 218 

An Old Log Schoolhouse 218 

Consolidated School at Twin Falls, Idaho . . . 230 

Indiana State Champion Basket Ball Team . . . 250 

Rural High-School Orchestra 250 

A Hurdle Race by Rural Schoolboys 252 

A Consolidated Building 256 

A Rural Community Center 256 

The Farm Boy 258 

Judging Cattle at a Rural School 260 

Judging Horses at a Rural School 260 

The Way the Old District School Sends Its Pupils 

Home 308 

One of the Best Types of School Hacks .... 308 

The Bad Road 314 

Changing Bad Roads into Good 314 

A Model District School 384 

Modern District Schoolroom 390 

Getting a Drink 408 

The Modern Way 408 

The Whiting School Playground 438 

Transportation by Trolley 468 

Farmers and Farmers' Boys Judging Corn .... 470 
School Children and Progressive Farmers Meeting Corn 

Extension Train 470 



BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 



PART I 

THE DEMAND FOR BETTER 
RURAL SCHOOLS 



CHAPTER I 

THE NEW OUTLOOK 

Almost three centuries have passed since the American 
common-school system had its birth. During all this 
time the rural school has been an important part of that 
school system and a significant factor in our country's 
history. From the beginning our people have deeply be- 
lieved in education, and have often sacrificed much to 
obtain its advantages. When the pioneers have pushed 
out to occupy new territory, they have never failed to 
take the school with them. Hardly have the cabin homes 
been erected before the rural schoolhouse has appeared. 
Born in the travail of poverty, and nourished not infre- 
quently through sacrifice almost of the very necessities of 
life, it is no wonder that the rural school has secured 
such a hold on our affections. 

In the early rural school were taught the "three R's" of 
the older day — the reading, writing and arithmetic that 
Early school con- constituted the school training of the 
*^*^°^s pioneers. The education received was 

meager enough, but it served its day. For the life to be met 
in those times demanded a rugged muscular endurance 
and the physical daring to be developed in the actual strug- 
gle for a livelihood rather than in schools. And few of 
that generation outside the learned professions possessed 

I 



2 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

an education extending beyond the simple rudiments ob- 
tained in the rural school or the scarcely more advanced 
schools of the villages. All honor to these hardy pio- 
neers, the fearless men and women who, lacking many of 
the educational opportunities which their children and 
grandchildren have had, were still able to lay so deep and 
sure the foundations of our nation ! 

The old-time rural school occupied a large place in the 
social as well as the intellectual life of the entire com- 
The social side of munity. For it was the center of 
old-time schools much truly educational activity be- 
sides the formal exercises of the school. Here were held 
the neighborhood spelling schools, attended and enjoyed 
by old and young for miles around. Here the neighbor- 
hood debating society held its fortnightly meetings dur- 
ing the long winter periods, and discussed the great so- 
cial and political questions that were agitating the young 
nation. School "exhibitions" afforded opportunity for 
training the oratorical powers of the ambitious youth 
who was later to win renown in the legislature or in the 
halls of congress. The "singing school" was organized 
for the lovers of music, and the "ciphering" match was 
held for such as were ambitious to display their mathe- 
matical prowess. Here both old and young assembled to 
the jingling tune of the winter sleigh-bells and, amid song 
and speech and laughter, joined in a merry time. Here 
new acquaintances were made, old friendships renewed, 
courtships begun, and a thousand other advantages at- 
tained which are impossible without a common neighbor- 
hood meeting-place and social center. The memory of 
the "little red schoolhouse" will rightly long be cherished 
among us as one of our dearest possessions from the 
earlier days. 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 3 

But the age and conditions that gave birth to the old- 
time rural school have passed away never to return. The 
Environment of rural school had its origin at a time 
pioneer schools when the nation wsls small and strug- 
gling, and when poverty stared almost every family in the 
face. It grew up while the battle was yet being waged 
to wrest a living from the untamed forest or the reluctant 
virgin prairies. The early rural schoolhouse not infre- 
quently looked out on roving bands of Indians bent on no 
peaceful errands. And its echoes were now and then 
awakened by the howl of the wolf and the cry of the 
panther. It was built of logs cut from the near-by forest ; 
its windows were of greased paper, for no glass was to 
be had. The benches were made of ax-hewn slabs rest- 
ing on wooden posts, and were innocent of backs. The 
room was heated by a fireplace occupying the rear of the 
building. A rough desk and chair for the master, a bunch 
of quills for the making of pens, and the omnipresent 
birch within his easy reach completed the equipment of 
the school. Truly a primitive school, but it belonged to 
a pioneer day and was a worthy representative of the 
rugged life of its times. 

Since those times, however, our nation has gone 
through a marvelous social and industrial transforma- 
Changes in indus- tion. The farmer, who, in the earlier 
trial conditions days, toiled and sacrificed to send his 

son to the little district school, himself traveled in the 
lumbering stage-coach when he made a journey; to-day 
he rides in his automobile, on the interurban, or on the 
limited express, enjoying every comfort found in his own 
home. At that day he broke his ground with a wooden- 
share plow, planted his corn by hand and cultivated it 
with a hoe ; now, he has the gang-plow, the check-rower 



4 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS ■ 

and the riding cultivator. Then, he cut his grain with a 
cradle and threshed it with a flail; now, he drives the 
self-binder and has his threshing done by the steam- 
driven self-feed, automatic-stacker thresher. At that 
time, his house was built of logs, heated by a fireplace 
and lighted with tallow candles ; to-day, his home is 
roomy and modern, heated by furnace or steam, well 
lighted, well furnished and abreast of the times. Then, 
when the season was not too busy, he could meet and 
talk with his neighbor perhaps once a fortnight or once 
a month ; now, his telephone connects him not only with 
all his neighbors, but with all the great world outside. 
Then, if perchance he found time to go to the post-office, 
he received a small local paper once a week; now, the 
daily papers, the farm journals and other magazines are 
delivered each morning at his door. In those days he 
had the family Bible and a scant half-dozen other books 
to read; now, he has a library in his home. Then, the 
little rural school to which he sent his son would furnish 
him with an education equal to that possessed by others 
of his day ; but now, such a school leaves him far below 
the average of present-day education, and not adequately 
equipped for his life and work on the farm. 

It is evident, then, that schools which served the pur- 
pose well during the last century will not now suffice. 
Times have changed. The world is on the move. New 
standards have arisen, and new demands are in force. 
We no longer go to war with the old flint-lock or the 
Springfield, but with an automatic machine that will 
shoot several times a second for hours without ceasing. 

Physicians are yet practising who were able to enter 
on their professions with no schooling worthy of the 
name. One such doctor has just died, after thirty years* 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 5 

practise of medicine. His sole preparation was a few 
months' study of veterinary medicine. He found it more 
profitable to practise on people than horses, and there 
was no law to prevent. Before he could enter on the 
practise of medicine to-day he would be required in most 
states to have four years at high school ; and in some 
states in addition to spend from two to four years in 
college; and finally three or four years in the medical 
school. Similar changes have come about in the require- 
ments for law, the ministry and commercial occupations. 
And the trades and other industrial vocations also de- 
mand a correspondingly increased degree of preparation 
and skill. 

But perhaps the greatest changes of all have come in 
the field of agriculture. It means much more to be a 
New standards in farmer now than even a generation 
agriculture ago. The difference is at least as great 

as in the case of the doctor, the lawyer, or the worker 
in a technical trade. Land has doubled, trebled, or quad- 
rupled in value, while at the same time losing something 
of its original productivity. It must therefore be so 
farmed as to overcome this loss, and return a fair interest 
or rent on a valuation of from one hundred to two hun- 
dred dollars an acre. 

The successful farmer must be something of a scientist. 
He must master the principles underlying the rotation of 
crops. He must know the nature of the different soils 
and their adaptability to the various plant products. He 
must understand the cultivation and growth of the differ- 
ent grains, grasses and vegetables. He must be familiar 
with the weeds and the insects that prey on his fields. He 
must have a knowledge of the breeding and the care of 
stock. He must be a business man, and understand the 



6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

markets for his grain and his stock. He should also be 
a mechanic, and understand the building, draining and 
other improvements necessary to the farm. 

The old type of rural school can not prepare for the 
problems of the modern farm. It has therefore had its 
Farm children's day. It belongs with the period of 
need of education home-made shoes, the scythe and the 
stone churn. It is not capable of supplying the educa- 
tion required by the twentieth-century rural boy or girl. 
They need, and have a right to, a better education than 
their parents or grandparents had. They require a prep- 
aration that will fit them to understand and carry out all 
the problems of successful present-day farming. They 
should also have their interests broadened and their 
minds developed through a knowledge of the world's 
great literature, its science, its history, its art and its 
music. Given material surroundings and equipment al- 
most infinitely in advance of those possessed by the 
former generation, they must also be given the mental 
training to match, else they will find themselves handi- 
capped in the presence of the new conditions, and will 
desert the farms for other lines of occupation. 

The farmer's school has always been, and should con- 
tinue to be, the rural school. But it must be a rural 
school that is abreast with the times, and not one on the 
level of a former century. It must keep step with the 
progress that is taking place in other lines, and with the 
new demands being made on agriculture. It must be able 
to educate the children of to-day for the farms of to-day. 
The rural school must be able to offer the farm child as 
good an education as that available to the town or city 
child, though this education will of necessity be in part a 
different education. 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 7 

Can the rural schools as they average over our country 
now measure up to the new requirements being placed 

Can the rural °" *^^"^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^P^ P^^^ ^^^^ 

school meet its de- other lines of social and industrial 

"^^"*^^' progress? Is the education afforded 

the farm boy and girl in our present rural schools as 
much better than that given their parents or grandparents 
as the present demands on education are greater than the 
former demands ? Is the rural child now receiving rela- 
tively as good an education as the rural child of the 
earlier day ? Has he provided for him as good an educa- 
tion as the town child receives? Is the rural school as 
good as the rural community can afford ? 

It is to be feared that such questions will in the main 
have to be answered in the negative. It is true that in 
Rural and town some regions of the country the rural 
schools compared schools have been improved and de- 
veloped until they now afford at least the rudiments of 
an excellent education for the children of the farm. But 
this is the exception rather than the rule. The old type 
of rural school is altogether too common in most parts 
of the country. While the town and city schools have 
been advancing in efficiency, the rural school has in too 
many cases stood where it was a lifetime ago. The town 
schools of the present day are generally housed in excel- 
lent buildings, planned both for architectural beauty and 
adaptability to the work of the school. The equipment 
is modern and efficient. The rooms are well decorated, 
and made attractive and homelike. Libraries are stocked 
with books, and laboratories adequately supplied with 
apparatus and material. The schools are well graded and 
managed, trained and efficient teachers are employed, and 
fair salaries paid. 



8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

But it is not so in the rural school. Too many rural 
schools are still sheltered in the pitiful little one-roomed 
Present status of building, ugly in appearance, heated by 
rural schools an unprotected stove in the middle of 

the room, lighted by opposite rows of shadeless win- 
dows, and ventilated hardly at all. The grounds are 
usually as desolate as the building, covered with un- 
mown grass and weeds, and destitute of shade trees. 
The interior of the room is often dingy and dirty, the 
windows and floor are unwashed, and the walls are 
without decorations. There are but few books, often no 
apparatus, and not infrequently a shortage of all supple- 
mental supplies necessary to teaching. The school is of 
necessity poorly classified, since the one teacher has all 
the grades under her charge. The teacher is usually 
overworked, often undertaking to hear as many as thirty 
recitations a day. She has, as a rule, had but little ex- 
perience, and no special training for her work. Too 
often she comes from a town or city home with no knowl- 
edge of farm life or conditions, and little interest in coun- 
try boys and girls. Thus the gap between the farm home 
and the school is still further increased. If the whole 
truth be told, thousands of our rural schools are not far- 
ing as well as they did fifty years ago. For then there 
were fewer graded schools and high schools to tempt the 
best teachers away from the district school. Hence a 
good teacher could often be kept for years in the same 
rural school ; now he is soon called to the town or city, 
and the rural school must take a young and an in- 
experienced teacher, or be satisfied with those who re- 
main after the city has had its pick. 

Nor is the actual amount of education received by the 
rural child to-day greatly in advance of that of the 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 9 

earlier day. Except in the more favored regions it is the 
exception rather than the rule for children to complete 
the eight grades of the rural schools. It is much more 
common for pupils to drop out of school somewhere from 
the third to the fifth grade, having mastered little more 
than the "three R's" of the old-time district school. They 
have learned to read, but have not yet read enough to 
develop an interest in good reading. They know almost 
nothing of their country's history, or its form of govern- 
ment. In this age of science, they are ignorant of the 
great scientific inventions and discoveries. They have 
learned but little concerning their bodies, and the hy- 
gienic laws on which their own health and happiness de- 
pend. They have received little or no instruction bear- 
ing directly on the work of the farm or the care of the 
farm home. With splendid powers of mind awaiting de- 
velopment, these powers are allowed to go relatively un- 
developed through lack of education. These children are 
not making the most of themselves. 

Visit your old home school of twenty-five or fifty 
years ago. Too often you will find the same old build- 
ing, ugly and small and weathered and inhospitable. 
There you will see the same old battered door whose 
latch you could then hardly reach ; the same rickety and 
carved desks where you sat with feet not touching the 
floor; the same cramped and barren room, ceiled with 
boards painted a dismal drab ; the same diminutive patch 
of blackboard, cracked, uneven and shiny ; the same ab- 
sence of books and apparatus for the school; the same 
meager and overcrowded program, but now poorly taught 
by an inexperienced and unprepared girl from a city 
school. The stumbling recitations, the listless study and 
the futile waste of precious time and opportunity are 



10 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

pitifully out of accord with the spirit of efficiency and 
progress of the present day. 

All this is below the standards of our times, and a 
grave injustice to the children of the farm. These boys 
Farm children ^"^ ^ir^s have a right to as good an 

have a right to education as that given to the chil- 

better education ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^j^j^g^ ^^f^y 

not? Are they less intelligent than the town boy and 
girl? Are they less interested in their work or less in- 
dustrious in their studies? Do they not make as good 
use of their education? Are they not entitled to their 
share of the happiness and success which only a good 
education can give them ? There are no brighter or more 
responsive children in our whole school system than those 
coming from the farm homes. Yet they are too com- 
monly found in a little, insufficient rural school that has 
had its day, and that should pass into history along with 
the log cabin, the wooden plow and the ox cart. These 
rural boys and girls represent the best blood, brawn and 
brain of any group of American people. They are not 
afraid to work. They are earnest and sincere. They 
greatly profit by a good education, and are seriously 
handicapped without it. The nation owes them a more 
efficient and practical education than they are receiving. 
This better service in the public schools can be had for 
our rural children, and it will be given to them. For the 
The farmer can farmer is prosperous and abundantly 
support better able to educate his children. And he 

schools jg ambitious to do so when he sees the 

necessity, and understands the directions that improve- 
ment in education should take. Let the farmer but fully 
comprehend how far his child is from having educational 
opportunities equal to those provided for town and city 



THE NEW OUTLOOK ii 

children; let him but see how greatly his child is handi- 
capped by lack of training with reference to the life and 
work of the farm ; let him but understand how far the old 
type of district school is behind the times ; and he will be 
the first to seek a remedy for these conditions. The 
farmer has the wealth, and will not hesitate to see it 
taxed for the education of his children ; he has the intel- 
ligence rightly to value true education ; he will finally be 
the most potent factor in the reconstruction of the rural 
school when he has come to see its great possibilities. 

Indeed the farmer is already awakening to the new 
necessities for education for his children. This is seen 
in the alarming tendency of farmers to move in increas- 
ingly larger numbers to the towns in order to obtain bet- 
ter educational facilities. A recent investigation among 
a large number of families who had deserted farm life 
for the town showed that more than four out of five gave 
the inefficiency of the rural school as the chief reason 
for the change. These farmers felt the obligation to give 
their children an education equal to the demands soon 
to be placed on them, and saw no way to accomplish it 
in the present rural school as it exists in their community. 

Grave social and industrial dangers lurk in the move- 
ment now going on from the farms to the towns 
Social and indus- and cities. Not the least of these 
trial dangers jg the effect on the middle-aged 

parents who, long accustomed to the life and work of 
the farm, are asked suddenly to change all their habits of 
life. Older people do not, at best, adapt themselves to 
new conditions so easily as younger ones, and in this case 
the new conditions place the father and mother at a de- 
cided disadvantage. The farmer misses the interests, the 
life, the activities to which he is accustomed. There is 



12 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

nothing for him to do, and trained to a life of work, he 
does not know how to employ his new-found leisure. 
Hence, leisure soon degenerates into idleness and discon- 
tent. The zest is gone from life, and health and longevity 
are threatened. The farm mother, moving to the town, 
misses the old environment hardly less. True, she still 
has her household to look after, but the old duties con- 
nected with the farm home are gone, and new pathways 
have to be blocked out. The old neighbors, friends of a 
score of years, are no longer at hand, and the clubs and 
social organizations of the town are strange and unfamil- 
iar. Arduous and trying as was her work in the old 
home, something of happiness and tranquillity was lost in 
the change to the new. 

A second great disadvantage coming from the urbani- 
zation of our people is the irreparable loss to the farm 
itself. When the farmer moves to town with his family, 
not only does the farm lose the services of the heads of 
the family — the father and mother who are usually still 
in the working prime of life — but in too many cases it 
also permanently loses the boys and girls who are taken 
to town for their education. For the education of the 
tozvn school does not lead to the farm, but away from it. 
That this is true even of the smaller towns and villages is 
abundantly proved by the relatively small proportion of 
its farm-born pupils who return to an agricultural career. 

The drain from the farm is so great that for the present 
generation it has amounted to about one per cent, a year. 
Need of more and And this has been going on at a time 
better farmers when the country has been urgently in 

need of more and better farmers, that through their in- 
creased numbers and efficiency the cost of living might 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 13 

be reduced ; it has been going on at a time when the pro- 
fessions have been greatly overcrowded, and do not 
need an accession of numbers; it has been going on at 
a time when we already have too large a proportion of 
our people in the towns and cities seeking to make a living 
through selling commodities instead of producing them; 
it has been going on at a time when the vocation of farm- 
ing has been offering greater opportunities and larger re- 
wards than ever before in our history. And when it is 
remembered that those who leave for the purpose of edu- 
cation are, on the average, the more enterprising and 
intelligent of our rural people, it also becomes evident 
that there must be some lowering of our farming popu- 
lation in quality, as well as numbers, through the move- 
ment. 

It is true that there are many other factors than a de- 
sire for education responsible for the agricultural exodus 
Other factors lead- to the towns. Many of the very in- 
ing from the farm fluences that have made the life of the 
farm broader and more interesting have had a tendency 
to foster a spirit of discontent with farm life and a desire 
for a more varied experience. The daily papers make the 
farm youth familiar with the life of the city. Magazines 
and journals familiarize him with the daring and re- 
Avards of great commercial enterprises. Books broaden 
the mind and extend the interests beyond the routine of 
the daily farm life. The automobile and the train give 
him a glimpse of the world of recreation and pleasure. 
Natural social impulses cause him to shrink from isola- 
tion and seek association with the people daily brought 
to his mind through reading or imagination. 

Yet most of these tendencies are very closely related to 



14 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

a broader education, and to the functions rightly belonging 
to the rural school. The rural school can, at its best, do 
The opportunity rnuch to remove the false glamour 
of the rural school from the city by making the country 
more attractive. It can open up the way to and prepare 
for a career in agriculture in every way comparable with 
the commercial careers open in the cities. It can unlock 
to the farm youth the treasures of literature, history, sci- 
ence and art. It can afford opportunities for recreation, 
amusement, and social mingling with others so necessary 
to the development and happiness of the young. In short, 
the rural school occupies a strategic position in the life 
and welfare of our rural communities. It will be the 
greatest factor in advancing the agricultural movement 
now gathering headway in the nation, or else, failing to 
grasp its opportunity, will prove a stumbling-block, and 
be supplanted by town and village schools. 

It is left for the rural school to join hands with the 
farmer and offer the farm boy and girl a better education 
Encouraging than the town can give them — better 

signs in that it is adapted to their needs and 

prepares them for their duties. And the rural school will 
rise to its opportunities. It is already rising; indeed, it 
has risen in many places. Som.e of the most marvelous 
educational advances made in our generation have taken 
place in the rural schools. It will be our purpose in the 
following chapters to describe some of these lines of prog- 
ress, and show how they can be extended to still other 
rural schools. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

I. Why is the rural school used so much less as a 
social center now than formerly ? Will it be possible for 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 15 

the school again to take up this function ? If so, how can 
it be brought about ? 

2. Why has the rural school fallen so far behind urban 
schools in recent educational progress ? 

3. Is there any validity in the seeming assumption that 
rural children can not be expected to have so good an 
education as town children? (Economic and social fac- 
tors.) 

4. To what extent do you think that the failure of the 
rural school to measure up to its responsibilities is ac- 
countable for the present drift from the farms to the 
towns and cities ? How can the rural school be used as a 
force to hold young people to the country instead of 
driving them from it? 

5. Do you know the percentage of illiteracy among 
those over ten years of age in your school district? 
Township ? County ? State ? 

6. Make a comparison of the school improvements 
effected in the town and country schools of your county 
during the last fifteen or twenty years : (a) in buildings 
and equipment; (b) in curriculum; (c) in requirement 
for teachers, and salaries paid. Has not rural prosperity 
increased at least as fast as town prosperity? 

7. How many farmers of your township have moved 
from their farms to town during the last five years? 
What are they now doing in town? In how many in- 
stances did they go to town for better school facilities? 
Is it in general true that those who have been leaving 
their farms average a higher and more progressive type 
than those who remain? 

8. Do you think that country schools can be made as 
efficient as town schools ? That country life can be made 
as attractive as town life? If so, what factors are re- 
quired in each case to accomplish such a result ? 



CHAPTER II 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 



Efficiency is the demand of the age. This demand has 
been slow in reaching the rural schools, but it is now 
making itself felt. The pressure for better facilities for 
the education of farm boys and girls is becoming insistent 
in nearly every section of the country. Marvelous ad- 
vance has already been made in many communities, and 
large plans are now under way in others. Owing to the 
problems arising from this reconstruction, it is worth 
while to ask ourselves what constitutes efficiency in the 
rural schools, how it is to be measured, and how obtained. 
How are we to tell whether a particular rural school, or 
type of schools, is yielding the highest possible returns? 
How shall we go to work to increase the efficiency of all 
our rural schools ? 

If it were as easy to measure the efficiency of a school 
as that of an engine or a factory, the problem would be 
Difficulty in meas- simple. But such is not the case. For 
uring school effi- the final outcome of the education of 
"®""^^ a child can not be told until years 

have passed. And even then, many factors besides his 
schooling have entered into his success or failure. It is 
therefore impossible to fix the exact proportion of re- 
sponsibility which the school must bear in determining 
the results of a life. But there are, nevertheless, some 

i6 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 17 

measures that we can apply to the efficiency of a school 
without depending on the more remote and uncertain 
ones. There are certain accepted business principles as 
immediately applicable to the running of schools as to the 
operation of factories or farms. 

One of the first measures of the efficiency of a school 
is its drazving pozver — the proportion of those of school 
Drawing power a ^^e in the community who are found 
measure of effi- within its walls. Do the children at- 

"^"^y tend school, or do they drop out at the 

third, fourth or fifth grade, not having developed an in- 
terest in education or discovered its relation to their wel- 
fare and success? Is the school running with half the 
attendance it should have, while the other half of the 
boys and girls are entering on life handicapped from the 
lack of what the school should be able to give them ? An- 
other phase of the same question has to do with the regu- 
larity of attendance of those who are enrolled. It costs 
as much to run the school when half or two-thirds of the 
pupils belonging are present as when all are. And the 
school itself will run much more satisfactorily and 
smoothly when all are present than when only a part 
are in attendance. Here then is an important test of 
school efficiency — is the school able to command the full 
time of its pupils, or do they remain out unnecessarily or 
for trivial reasons ? Are they and their parents ready to 
sacrifice if need be that the children may be at school 
every day, or is absence taken lightly and as a matter of 
course? Is school-going a serious business looked upon 
seriously, or is it largely incidental ? Let us seek answers 
to these questions. 

The full elementary course of eight years occupies 
about nine months of the child's time each year from the 



tS BETTER RURAU SCHOOLS ' 

age of five or six to thirteen or fourteen. And if tHe 
high school is also included, a corresponding amount of 
Time required for time each year will be required up to 
school course the age of seventeen or eighteen. The 

proportion of children between these ages who are in the 
schools will therefore afford one measure of the rural 
school's efficiency in attracting and holding its con- 
stituency. 

There are no statistics available showing the exact pro- 
portion of rural children of certain ages who are enrolled 
in school, yet the approximate facts are known. Count- 
ing all schools, both rural and town or city, one-quarter 
of the states have at least eighty-five per cent, of all chil- 
dren between five and eighteen registered in school; an- 
other quarter have at least eighty per cent, between five 
and eighteen in school; a third quarter, about seventy- 
five per cent. ; and the remaining quarter, less than sev- 
enty per cent. When it is remembered that these statistics 
include all town and city schools as well as rural schools, 
and that the proportion of country children in school is 
frequently less than half that of town children, it is seen 
that we greatly need to increase the drawing power of the 
rural school. Counties may be found in many rich and 
intelligent states where hardly a score of children in the 
whole county annually complete the work of the eighth 
grade of the rural school, and consequently where very 
few rural pupils are to be found in high school. It is 
probably safe to say that our rural children are on the 
average quitting school with not more than four out of 
the eight years of elementary school work. This amount ^" 
of education must in the long run spell industrial and 
social inferiority for our agricultural people. Efficiency 
demands, therefore, that the rural school shall be able to 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 



19 



1. VERMONT 

2. MAINE 

3. CONNECTICUT C 

4. COLOFIADO 

5. IOWA 
6 MONTANA 
7. OHIO 

a MASSACHusrrrs 

a WASHINGTON 

10. IDAHO 

11. N. HAMPSHIRE 

12. N.DAKOTA 

»3. ARIZONA 

14. ILLINOIS 

15. FLORIDA 

16. OKLAHOMA 

17. NEW yORK 

18. KANSAS 

19. RHODE I5LANDI 
2Q NEBRASKA 

21. UTAH 

22. INDIANA 

23. TENNESSEE 

24. WYOMING [ 



25. MICHIGAN 
2e. NEW JERSEY 
Z7. N.CAROLINA 

28. W. VIRGINIA 

29. MISSISSIPPI 

50. PENN5YLVANI 

51. MISSOURI 
3Z S.DAKOTA 
53. MINNESOTA 

34. ARKANSAS 

35. WISCONSIN 
«56. CALIFORNIA 

37. OREGON 

38. DELAWARE 

39. KENTUCKY 

40. N.MEXICO 

41. MARYLAND 

42. GEORGIA 
45 S. CAROLINA [ 

44. VIRGINIA 

45. ALABAMA 

46. TEXAS 

47. NEVADA 
4-a LOUISIANA 



SO 90 too 




Per cent, of the school population enrolled in 1910. White indicates 
children :n public schools, shaded in private schools, and black not in any 
^"^ °°'" —Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



i20 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

command a greater supply of the raw material of educS-' 
tion — the boys and girls who are within reach of these 
schools and suffering for the want of what the school 
should be able to give them. A larger proportion of the 
farm children must be brought to enroll in the rural 
school, and held for a longer time under its influence. 

To obtain this result will require both new ideals in the 
organization and work of the school, and the personal in- 
Influence of fluence of capable and devoted teach- 

teacher in holding ers. Possibilities in these directions 
pupils in school ^j.g suggested by a typical incident oc- 
curring in a western rural school. A young man was en- 
gaged to teach in a certain district where there were two 
brothers, fifteen and seventeen years of age, who had 
dropped out of school in the third and fourth grades re- 
spectively. Their parents could barely read and write, 
and the boys were but little more advanced. Of course 
they had no notion of ever again entering school, but 
were settling down in sullen doggedness to the work of 
the old farm, which showed the effects of low standards 
and poor methods of cultivation. Our young teacher 
visited this home a week before the opening of the term. 
He imderstood the boys, and wanted to help them. He 
invited them to enter the school. The boys were not en- 
thusiastic. Our young teacher called again a few days 
later. He had thought of a new idea. He talked to the 
boys about the new studies now taught in the rural school. 
He described the work in agriculture and manual train- 
ing which they could enter, and its relation to their suc- 
cess on the farm. They became interested; and they 
liked the young teacher who cared enough about them 
to want to help them. These boys enrolled in his school 
on the opening day, and are now among his most en- 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 



21 



RHOflE ISLANO 

NEW YORK 

MA5SACVIU3ETT31 

MARYLAND 

CONNECTICUT 

MONTANA 

NEW JERSEY 

CAUFORNIA 

WISCONSIN 

NEBRASKA 

OEXAWARE 

WASHlNeTON 

IOWA 

MICHIGAM 

ILLINOIS 

Ohio 

PENNSYLVANIA! 

a DAKOTA 

UTAH 

hi HAMP5HIRE 

KANSAS 

VERMONT 

MAINC 

C0U5RAD0 

MISSOURI 

MINNESOTA 

N. DAKOTA 

INDIANA 

NEVADA 

GEORGIA 

WYOMING 

OKLAHOMA 

VIRGINIA 

OREGON 

IDAHO 

LOUISIANA 

ARIZONA 

W VIRGINIA 

TEXAS 

TENNE53EC '' 

KENTUCKY 

MISSISSIPPI 

ALABAMA 

ARKANSAS 

FLORIDA 

S CAROLINA 

N. CAROLINA I 

N MEXICO 




Length of school year and average attendance in each state in 1910, 
Each small square represents one day schools are kept open. Shaded por- 
tions indicate average attendance. 

— Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



22 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

thusiastic pupils, leading their classes in agriculture and 
manual training, and making rapid progress in their 
other studies. This case, with varying details, of course, 
could be duplicated in thousands of other rural com- 
munities where boys and girls have become discouraged 
and quit school too soon. Given the right kind of teach- 
ers and right conditions within the school, it would not 
be difficult to double the enrollment of the rural schools. 

But increasing the enrollment in rural schools is not 
all. Efficiency also demands that the school year be made 
Length of school longer in many schools. To complete 
y^^^ the elementary school course requires 

for the average child approximately eight years of one 
hundred and eighty days each. But comparatively few 
rural schools have one hundred and eighty days of school 
a year. Even counting in the town and city schools, there 
are only nine of our forty-eight states that keep their 
schools open for an average of nine months each year, 
and half of them average less than seven months. The 
rural schools in general average a school year not more 
than two-thirds to three-fourths as long as that of towns 
and cities ; hence we find the rural school year running 
from about four months in certain states to eight months 
in others, and probably averaging not more than six 
months for all. What would we think of the efficiency 
of a factory which had available the plant and raw ma- 
terial for steady employment, but which shut down for 
a half of each year, leaving its patronage wanting in the 
product it was to supply? Yet that is what the rural 
school is doing in altogether too many instances. 

Not only is the rural school year short, but the real 
attendance year is shorter still. For the attendance in 
many schools is very irregular, with from a third to a 



.THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 2Z 

half of the pupils absent every day. In not more than 
half of the states will the average daily attendance in 
rural schools reach two-thirds of those enrolled ; in other 
states the daily attendance is barely more than half the 
enrollment. This means, of course, that, on the whole, 
the children enrolled in the rural schools come to school 
only every other day, or at best but two days out of 
three. It will manifestly not solve the problem to increase 
the length of the school year, without at the same time 
improving the regularity of attendance. For this would 
but cause additional expense without commensurate re- 
turns. 

The combined result of the short school year together 
with the short attendance year is rather appalling. For, 
Results of short ^^^ ^^ assume that each rural child is 
time attendance to complete the full eight-year ele- 
mentary course ; because of the short year and irregular 
attendance, however, it will take him much more than 
eight years to finish the course. In fact, in at least one- 
fourth of our states, it would require fully tzventy years 
to complete the elementary course at the rate of attend- 
ance now obtaining. Even in such typical agricultural 
states as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, sixteen years 
would he necessary to complete the eight-year course with 
the rural-school attendance year what it now is. This is 
to say that, on such a basis, an average pupil entering the 
rural school at the age of six, would receive his eighth- 
grade certificate at the age of twenty-two years. If he 
should go on through a high school at the same rate, he 
would have earned his high-school diploma by the time 
he was thirty. Of course this is preposterous, and ob- 
viates the necessity of further argument to show the 
necessity for reform^ 



24 BETTER RURAL! SCHOOLS 

So much for our first measure of efficiency. It reveals 
one of the greatest weaknesses of our rural-school sys- 
tem — the waste of money, time and 
The waste of time opportunity through failure of the 
school to gather its pupils and hold them a sufficiently 
long time in attendance. The situation finds its analogy 
in agriculture, where time and attention have recently 
been given to obtain a more perfect stand of corn. We 
have come to see the folly of plowing, planting and culti- 
vating a field that has only two-thirds of the stalks it 
should have. For this means a waste of land, of labor 
and of returns. So with the rural schools. They do not 
have a sufficiently large "stand." We supply buildings 
and equipment, and employ teachers for approximately 
half the pupils that should he in attendance. What a 
lamentable waste! No commercial business could run 
on this basis without ending in bankruptcy. Nor can we 
aflford to conduct our schools on so low a scale of ef- 
ficiency. 

A second great measure of school efficiency is the type 
of education afforded. Is the training given what the 
The type of educa- community most needs for its own 
tion and efficiency interests and welfare ? Does the 
school serve to fit the pupils into the concrete activi- 
ties and obligations of later life? Specifically, does the 
rural school make better farmers, citizens and keep- 
ers of homes? Does it not only supply the broad and 
general foundations of knowledge which all must have, 
but does it help the boy in the problems of agriculture, 
stock raising, and the mechanical work of the farm ? Does 
it train the girl to understand and care for the farm 
home, making it comfortable, hygienic and artistic? Does 
it serve to attract its pupils to farm life, instead of driv- 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 



25 



5 HAitMMViini 




Pupils in high schools and colleges for each 1,000 enrolled in elementary 
schools in 1910. — Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



26 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ing them from it? Here again we may seek answers to 
our questions from actual facts and conditions. 

The rural school should help the farmer to obtain 
greater returns from the labor he expends, and at the 
Duty of the rural ^ame time aid him in providing a 
school to its pa- larger supply of food for the millions 
*^°"^ who are dependent on the yield of 

the soil for their daily bread. The farmers are perhaps 
the hardest-working and most frugal of all our industrial 
classes, but much of their labor goes for naught through 
lack of the knowledge and skill required for the largest 
returns from their work. It is safe to say that they 
could double the profits from the farms with little addi- 
tional labor, if they would but put into practise as good 
methods of farming and stock raising as are now known 
and easily available to all. And the most natural and ef- 
fective way to put the farmer into possession of the sci- 
entific knowledge and skill required is through the rural 
school. 

Many rural schools have awakened to their opportu- 
nity, and are adding to the wealth of their communities 
Lines of opportun- ^^ introducing better methods of 
ity open to rural farming. The great need for further 
schools work along these lines is seen in a 

few illustrations. It was estimated by experts that the 
farmers of Indiana, in the season of 19 ii averaged sev- 
enty per cent, of a perfect stand of corn; and that ap- 
proximately a perfect stand could have been had through 
two additional expedients, the testing of the seed and 
better preparation of the soil for planting. The farmers 
of Indiana planted 5,000,000 acres of corn for that sea- 
son's crop. But a seventy per cent, stand means that 
only 3,500,000 acres actually grew corn. Thus the farm- 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 27 



" . O' *. 



je rcr<r*c3Aet 







2B.CONNeCTlCUT 
fa PENN3Y 



Per cent, of population ten years of age and over who were unable to read 
and write in each state in 1910. 

— Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



28 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ers of one state were plowing, planting, cultivating, and 
paying interest or rental for 1,500,000 acres of land for 
which they received no return, simply because they had 
no crop growing on it. The annual loss to the farmers of 
Indiana from this one source amounts to nearly 60,000,000 
bushels of corn, or enough when sold to support four pub- 
lic-school systems as expensive as their own, or to build 
several thousand miles of excellent highways. And be- 
sides this, the world, already paying far too high a price 
for food products, is deprived of a vast amount of food 
to which it has a right. 

Similar illustrations may be found in any agricultural 
state. The average corn yield in Kentucky for 19 10 was 
The rural school twenty-nine bushels to the acre. More 
and better farming intelligent methods of farming, to- 
gether with but little more labor expended on the crop, 
would easily have doubled the yield. But an increase of 
even five bushels to the acre would have netted the state 
over ten million dollars additional income from the corn 
crop. And it is one of the opportunities of the rural school 
to show how to obtain the increased yield. The rural school 
can do it, it is doing it in many communities. It is the 
claim of government statisticians that the rural schools 
of Canada increased the wheat yield in certain regions of 
that country five bushels per acre in a few years' time. 
Iowa is at present raising less than forty bushels of corn 
to the acre, in spite of an excellent climate and the fact 
that this state has one of the best corn soils to be found in 
the country. Experts tell us that Iowa can easily raise 
seventy-five bushels to the acre; all that is needed is 
better methods of farming. This means that Iowa farm- 
ers are annually paying some 200,000,000 bushels of corn 
as the price for the lack of information concerning farm 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 29 

work and methods that could easily be acquired. It also 
means that the consumers of food are paying their share 
in increased cost of living for this ignorance and care- 
lessness. 

And the consumers of food will soon have to be reck- 
oned with in our problem. For the food situation is be- 
The rural school coming acute. It is carefully esti- 
and the consumer mated that our population is at pres- 
ent increasing five times as fast as our food supply. This 
can not continue indefinitely. High prices are but an 
indication of a mild degree of famine. Our resources 
have been so rich and our population so sparse that we 
have been very wasteful of our natural wealth and espe- 
cially the wealth of our soil. But practically all our 
tillable land is now under cultivation, or so large a per- 
centage that the addition of the remainder will produce 
a hardly noticeable effect. All this is to say that our 
increasing millions must be fed from the land that is 
now under cultivation. Manifestly the only way to ac- 
complish this is to increase the productiveness of our 
soil. It is not only a humiliating waste of labor and op- 
portunity to obtain less than half of what the soil should 
yield for the labor we put on it, but it is a grave injustice 
to every person who is dependent on our farms for his 
food. For there is only so much tillable soil to be had ; 
from that we all must be fed. And those who, in the dis- 
tribution of our population, have settled on the land, 
must see to it that we are fed ; or else they have no right 
to occupy the soil. They must be willing to educate 
themselves and their children in the art of better farming. 

And the signs are most encouraging. A new spirit is 
entering into our agricultural work. The leaven is being 
planted. Many forces are at work to educate the farmer. 



30 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

The federal government is encouraging improved meth- 
ods of farming in every practical way. Bulletins of 

„, ^. . . information are being freely distrib- 

Education in agn- , t- j • i 

culture through ru- uted. Educational experts are trav- 
ral schools eling about, giving instruction in agri- 

culture and stock raising or other phases of farming. 
The state agricultural colleges are attracting hundreds 
of young farmers to their courses of scientific instruction, 
and are even going out over the state and bringing their 
instruction to the very homes of the farmers. High 
schools are introducing courses in agriculture, and normal 
schools are opening courses to prepare teachers for this 
field of work. But by far the greatest factor available 
for the agricultural education of our boys and girls is the 
rural school. For here they all should be found. Only 
a few ever get to the agricultural college. Not a large 
proportion attend even the town high school; and too 
many of those who do never return to the farm. If the 
great mass of our farmers are to be taught to obtain the 
largest fruits from their work, and to return the greatest 
amount from the soil for the food supply of the world, 
this instruction must be given in the rural school. No 
other agency can reach all of them. 

Supplementing the work in agriculture in the efficient 
rural school, there must be manual training for the boys 
Manual training in ^^^ domestic science for the girls ar- 
rural schools ranged with especial reference to the 

problems of the farm and the farm home. The farmer 
is constantly called on to exercise his skill as a mechanic 
in connection with the buildings and equipment of ma- 
chinery of the farm. No carpenter, cement expert, or 
blacksmith is at hand, and much time is lost if a trip 
must be taken to the town shop, or the matter at hand 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 31 

left unattended to. Every well-equipped farm of to-day 
needs a full set of carpenter's tools, a forge for the 
mending of minor mishaps to machinery, and the neces- 
sary appliances for other mechanical work. But these 
are of small value without the knowledge and skill to put 
them to practical use. While the rural school can not 
hope to train to expert skill in all these lines, it develops 
the elements of manual skill, and leads to interest in such 
occupations. Manual training in the rural school is of 
great economic value to every farm boy. 

Similarly in the case of domestic science as a prepara- 
tion for the care of the farm home. The housewife car- 
Domestic science i"g for a farm home has a different 
in rural schools problem from that confronting the 
keeper of the city home. A larger proportion of the food 
is raised and prepared at home for the table of the 
farmer ; there is less dependence on canned foods, baker's 
bread, ready-made desserts, and all the other city de- 
vices to lessen the amount of preparation of food in 
the home. The sanitation of the farm home is also 
a far greater problem than in the case of the town 
home where city water, sewers and garbage wagon 
solve some of the greater problems of hygiene. The 
care of the home to make it attractive on the esthetic 
side is a problem that needs further attention in the 
rural schools. For the natural beauty of country en- 
vironment, the possibility of flowers, shrubs and gardens 
to make the surroundings inviting in connection with the 
rural home have never had the attention they deserve. 
Likewise should the girls of the country home receive 
instruction in the art of home furnishing and decoration, 
and all that goes to make the home attractive in its in- 
terior equipment. In fitting girls to be expert home- 



32 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

makers, the rural school finds one of its greatest oppor- 
tunities. 

For many reasons the country is more healthful than 
the city. Yet it is doubtful whether the greater part of 
The rural school our rural population live under better 
and public health hygienic conditions than industrial 
workers of equal financial status in towns and cities. 
Certain it is, at least, that farmers and their wives age 
early, that insanity is at least as prevalent in rural dis- 
tricts as in the city, and that many preventable diseases 
show a higher mortality in the country than in towns. 
With all its natural advantages over the city, statistics 
show almost as high an aggregate death rate for the 
country as for the crowded rushing cities. 

Statistics show that about 400,000 of our rural popu- 
lation are killed each year by infectious diseases, the re- 
sult of poison by bacteria. By far the larger part of this 
sickness and death could be prevented by following sim- 
ple and easily taught rules for hygienic living. It is one 
of the great functions of the rural schools to teach and 
show the necessity for following these rules. The old 
course in physiology such as would be suited to the 
knowledge of the surgeon or the doctor is not what is 
needed, but the simple scientific facts that have to do 
with preventing disease, and maintaining the highest de- 
gree of physical health and efficiency. 

An illustration will show the practical trend that one 
phase of hygiene may take in the rural school. Careful 
Teaching of hy- studies of the water supply on many 
giene in rural farms in the United States have 

schools shown that approximately sixty per 

cent, of the farm wells are polluted by house and barn- 
yard drainage, thus endangering the health of tile family 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 33 

through ignorance or carelessness. Though farm chil- 
dren are close to the source of milk supply, thousands of 
tests have shown that milk is constantly being used from 
tubercular cows, thus exposing the children of the family 
— the greatest milk users — to the danger of this dread in- 
fection at the age when they are most susceptible to its 
ravages. Human and animal waste is on most farms 
improperly disposed of, and supplies a breeding place 
for flies, which transfer filth and microbes to the food 
eaten by the family. The air breathed in farm homes 
during the winter months is commonly more impure than 
that in city homes, because of more inadequate ventila- 
tion. Cellars are frequently damp and improperly 
drained, and the common drinking cup is very generally 
in use. 

The result of these easily remedied unhygienic condi- 
tions is measured in the annual loss of more than eighty 
thousand of our rural population through the ravages 
of tuberculosis ; of nearly sixty thousand through in- 
testinal troubles other than typhoid ; of fifty-five thousand 
through various forms of colds ; of fifty thousand 
through pneumonia; of sixteen thousand through ty- 
phoid ; and so in lesser numbers through diphtheria, scar- 
let fever and other such diseases. Here, then, is one 
of the greatest lines of service open to the rural school — ■ 
to teach the rules of better living, so that life may be 
longer, health and happiness greater, and physical ef- 
ficiency more perfect. 

A third measure of a school's efficiency is its hold upon 
the loyalty of its constituency. Do the people believe in 
Loyalty a measure the school, and feel a personal inter- 
of efficiency est and pride in its welfare? Have 

they a sense of ownership in the school? Do they look 



34 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

upon it as a paying investment for the community, or as 
a forced drain on its resources? 

On the attitude of the patrons toward the rural school 
will depend much of the success of the reforms now un- 
der way. For neither compulsory education acts, nor 
laws governing the type of school buildings or course of 
study, nor any other legal compulsion can finally result 
in efficient schools. These may all be necessary, and serve 
a good purpose. But not until the rural school is fully 
and enthusiastically adopted as the community's best 
ally and friend, will it attain full efficiency. 

The efficient rural school is, then, the one that wins 
its way into the confidence of its patrons. And out of 
this confidence will arise a practical loyalty and support 
which, in turn, will mean new and greater efficiency for 
the school. 

Efficiency can therefore be measured by the extent to 
which the school is able to fit itself helpfully into the 
conditions of the community and serve its needs. Nor 
does this mean merely the intellectual needs of the chil- 
dren, but all phases of community life and activity. To 
illustrate : 

' A rural school in Indiana was not long ago half grudg- 
ingly equipped with a small outfit for manual training. 
Concrete cases of The boys of the school had been 
service rendered studying in their course in agriculture 
the best type of chicken coop for the mother hen and 
her brood. For manual-training lessons, the boys 
were set at work making these coops. The coops 
were taken home and tried. They proved service- 
able and were soon in great demand around the neigh- 
borhood. Indeed the demand was greater than could be 
supplied. The school, in a few weeks, sold coops 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 



33 



1 WASHlNCTbN 
Z MASSACHUSETTS 
3 NEW >ORK 
A CALIFORNIA 
5 CONNECTICUT 
b OHIO 
7 NE.W JiRSVr 
e ILLINOIS 
9 COLORADO 

10 IfMDIANA 

1 1 RHODt ISLAND 

12 V£R^1CNT 

13 NtW riAMRJHIRE 

14 UTAH 

15 ORLGON 

16 MONTANA 

17 MICrilQAN 

18 N DAKOTA 

19 IDAHO 

ta MINNESOTA 

l\ IOWA 

tZ MAINE. 

^3 PENNSYLVAKIIA 

LA KAN5AS 

ZS NEBRA&KA 
26 5 DAK.OTA 
^7 Nt-VADA 
26 WlSCON^ilM 
^9 WYOMING 
50 ARIZONA 
31 OKLAHOMA 
52 MISSOURI 
3J W. VIRGINIA 
M FLORIDA 
35 DELAWARE 
56 MARYLAND 

37 TtNNE5StE 
58 TEXAS 

39 LOUISIANA 

40 NEW MEXICO 

41 VIRGINIA 

42 KENTUCKY 
4i ARKANSAS 

44 GEORGIA 

45 Ml^iS6\ppi 
£t> N CAROLINA 
Al 6. CAROLINA 

^ ALABAMA 



Chil- 
dren IN 

SCHOOL 



EXPENSE 
PER 

cmtD 



iCdOOL- 
DAYJ 
P£R 

cm ID 



AT 
TENC- 
ANCE 



tXPENB 
ITURE 
AHO 

WEALTH 



ftftlUf 

cosr 



HIGH 

hoioou 



iAL- 
ARIL$ 



r>;,',v:'ii 



lEZ 



iyy;;^^%^<-^^L 



MBewp'^ 



|[^;';:V:^J 




IZIZII 




v^;?^jr;/;^7r 



t^;" /;;;/ii 



I • ir^'"'"i[- — -w — :;—' ^^■■v-^\ 



--•iry ■II 



IZ^^M. 



^2n 



W/////AV/////A\- 



\Y///y//A 



T '""11 



l^.'.. .'.'j 



V/////AV:. ZT 



1 \y//4yAV///)7 ^^Z^7P. 




V///////. 



r ^ • vmrmxyjiUK'X - :' " xw/mmmm^ 



\':i!Mm\mmfWjii^yyj^mmm\: ^-mmm^ 



\mMmmmmmmm\ 




Chart by states showing the rank of each state in ten educational fea- 
tures. — Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



36 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

enough not only to pay for the manual-training outfit, 
but also greatly to increase it. But best of all was the 
new interest aroused in the school throughout the com- 
munity. Here was something tangible, a very definite 
link between the work of the school and the interests of 
the farm. The result has been a fully equipped school, 
with a broader and better curriculum, and loyal support 
on the part of an increased patronage. And this greater 
efficiency, which all originated with a hen coop, has ex- 
tended until it has included a finer school spirit, and bet- 
ter work in all the studies. 

The experience of a young teacher in a Minnesota rural 
school illustrates the same point. When he entered on 
Support ready ^^^ duties he found the school poorly 

when returns are equipped, the interest of the pupils 
assured ^^ ^ j^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ almost total lack 

of educational spirit in the community. The district was 
situated in the midst of a dairying region. The young 
man struck an idea. He prevailed on a local creamery 
to give the school a cream tester. Then he taught both 
the boys and the girls how to use it. Samples of cream 
were brought from all the homes. Reports of the tests 
were sent back with the children. Farmers awoke to the 
fact that there is a great difference in the cream pro- 
ducing qualities of cows. They were astonished to find 
that they were keeping certain cows at an actual loss. 
On the strength of the school tests one man disposed of 
ten out of his herd. The farmers all grew interested, and 
conducted tests for themselves, the result being greatly 
increased earnings on many farms. But more marked 
than all was the changed attitude toward the school. 
Loyalty took the place of indifference, the tone of the 
work improved and finally a new and modern building 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 37 

supplanted the old one. The school had convinced its 
constituency of its value in the community, and the com- 
munity immediately responded by giving the school both 
moral and financial support. 

This principle could be similarly illustrated in thou- 
sands of other rural schools scattered throughout the 

Industrial subjects ^^^^t^^" ^or need it be feared that 
a help to other the new emphasis bemg placed on 

studies industrial lines of work in the school 

will lower its efficiency in other subjects. The opposite 
is the case. The universal experience is that the new 
life and greater interest coming to the school through 
these practical subjects have reacted on the older branches 
much to their good. 

Another fruitful direction in which the rural school 
is extending its efficiency is that of supplying the com- 
The rural school munity with a general neighborhood, 
as a social center or social center. The dearth of 
amusement and the poverty of social meeting places in 
the country is one of its great drawbacks, and a source 
of discontent tending to draw people from the farm. 
The rural school can do much to remedy this lack, and 
at the same time increase its own efficiency. The last 
few years have seen scores of rural schoolhouses and 
grounds reconstructed with a view to making them avail- 
able for social as well as intellectual purposes. This 
movement is being rapidly extended in many states, and is 
one of the most promising forms of service opening up 
to the rural school. 

It may be said that these new ideals of efficiency will 
demand radical changes in many of our rural schools. 
Changes demanded That is true ; and many of them need 
by new ideals radical changes. But the changes re- 



38 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

quired are all a practical and possible kind, and only 
such as have already been carried out in many of the 
more progressive rural schools. Nothing has been pro- 
posed that is not now in use in various schools widely 
scattered in different states. We shall need to change 
the rural school curriculum; many of the rural schools 
will need to be consolidated; better buildings must be 
supplied; better trained teachers must be provided, and 
they must receive larger salaries. These things are the 
price of efficiency. They can be had by such rural schools 
as are able through their present hold on the community 
to claim them ; the school gets only as it gives in return. 
How large numbers of rural schools increased their ef- 
ficiency, and how others may follow their example, will 
be more fully outlined in the following pages. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. What chief factors other than those of the school 
are operating to educate the child: (home activities, 
community, church, press, etc.) ? 

2. What percentage of those between the ages of six 
and eighteen in your district who have not completed a 
full elementary course of eight years are not enrolled in 
school? What causes led to their dropping out? How 
many of them could still be induced to go to school if 
conditions were right ? 

3. What is the average percentage attendance in your 
school ? In your county ? In your state ? Based on the 
number of days your school is open each year, and assum- 
ing that eight years of one hundred and eighty days each 
are required to complete the country school, how long 
would it require for the average of your school to finish 
the course? How long for your pupil with the highesl^ 



THE CALL FOR EFFICIENCY 39 

average attendance? For the one with the lowest aver- 
age attendance? 

4. Consider making for your county a chart by town- 
ships similar to the one on page thirty-five for the differ- 
ent states. 

5. After studying the chart, decide in which of the 
tests of efficiency your state ought to rank higher than 
it does. (Note that the number of children in school and 
the value of the school depend in part on population and 
the size of the state.) What means would be required to 
bring about the improvement you suggest? 

6. What have the rural schools of your region done in 
any direct and immediate attempt to relate their work 
more closely to the farm ? What are the next steps to be 
taken ? 

7. It has been argued by some that instruction in agri- 
culture can not be made effective below the high school. 
What is your judgment on this question? 

8. Make a careful analysis of the loyalty and interest 
and the disloyalty and indifference toward the school pre- 
vailing in your district : What percentage can you count 
as loyal and interested? As disloyal and indifferent? 
Can you suggest what is required to improve conditions ? 



PART II 

THE CURRICULUM OF THE 
RURAL SCHOOL 



CHAPTER III 

THE OLD CURRICULUM 

The modern rural school must have a broader and 
more practical curriculum than the old type of school. 
While it is a justifiable boast that our nation has a very 
low percentage of illiteracy, and while certain agricul- 
tural states where rural schools prevail have the lowest 
percentage of all, yet such a test for education will no 
longer serve. It is well worth while to have the advan- 
tages of education so well distributed that every citi- 
zen is able to read for himself concerning the world in 
which he lives ; and this is a great advantage over former 
centuries. But bare literacy is too low a standard to 
be taken in our day as a measure of education. The op- 
portunities are too great, and the demands too pressing 
for this to be adequate. Our quest must now go 
farther and ask to what extent education has prepared 
for the highest degree of efficiency. We must not be 
satisfied that most of our people possess a little educa- 
tion, but must make sure that they possess an education 
equal to the opportunities and demands of the age. 

It should therefore be assumed that every rural boy 
and girl of to-day is to learn the simple elements of 
Mere literacy no reading and writing. It is a crime 
longer a test against childhood and against civili- 

zation where it is otherwise. But we must next ask to 
what extent they have entered into the waiting heritage 

43 



44 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

of the world's great literature; do they like to read, and 
do they know what and how to read ? How far are they 
acquainted with the great lessons of civilization as re- 
vealed in history, and as shown in the development of 
their own country? How familiar are they with the 
machinery of government of their country, state and 
nation, and how ready patriotically to share its respon- 
sibilities? How well do they know the fruitful fields 
of modern science, especially as it relates to their own 
lives and bears upon their line of work? Have they 
secure in their possession the easily available knowledge 
of the science of agriculture and stock raising which will 
enable them to make highly successful farmers? Do 
they understand the economic principles underlying the 
successful business management of the modern farm 
and home? 

Do the girls know not only the routine of house- 
keeping as learned in their homes, but also the science 
that should guide in the selection and preparation of 
foods, and the hygienic care of their households? Have 
they had an opportunity to study the arts that will 
enable them to make their homes beautiful, as well as 
comfortable and healthful? Have both boys and girls 
trained their hands as well as their heads to work skil- 
fully, so that they have not only learned the dignity of 
labor, but have established high standards of excellence 
for all that their hands find to do? Are they grounded 
in the laws underlying physical health, and do they prize 
the purity and health of their bodies above rubies and 
diamonds? Is their education not only sufficient in 
amount, but also of the right kind to prepare them for 
the real experiences that await them in the estate of man- 
hood and womanhood on which they soon will enter? 



THE OLD CURRICULUM 45 

In short, are these rural boys and girls equipped with an 
education that will give them a fair chance for success- 
ful living under the stress of twentieth-century condi- 
tions? 

All these questions must in some way be affirmatively 
answered by the rural schools ; for our farm children 
Vital subjects lack- must be supplied with these f unda- 
ing in rural school mental aspects of education. But 
such questions can not be so answered by the old type 
of rural school with its meager and narrow course of 
study. Most of these things can not be learned in our 
rural schools, for they are not taught there. These lines 
of study have been excluded from the rural schools 
partly because the one-room school can not teach so 
many things at once; partly because the place which 
some of these studies should take is occupied by sub- 
jects that might well give way for more useful ones; 
and partly because the need for them has not been fully 
realized. 

How many rural schools still teach essentially what 
the parents of the present generation studied in theii 
Old standards rural school-days ! Who of us can 

still prevail forget those early school experiences ! 

First we began on our "letters," our spelling and num- 
bers. We soon advanced to the dignity of reading 
and arithmetic, to which later geography, grammar, 
physiology and a small text in history were added. But 
the narrow and futile emptiness of the grind ! We went 
over the First Reader, and then over it again, until we 
knew it by heart. — "Do we go up ? We do go up. Will 
he go up ? He will go up." These and such like striking 
tales were our unvarying mental diet day after day for a 
whole year of reading. Then we attacked the Second 



46 BETTER RURAU SCHOOLS 

Reader after the same fashion, and proceeded to weaf 
it out, both Hterally and figuratively, as we had done 
with its predecessor. So we advanced to the wonderful 
Third Reader and, if we continued in school beyond this 
grade, to the fourth, or finally, even to the fifth of the 
series. We read them all through from beginning to end. 
We reviewed them. Then we read them by selections 
made by the class ; finally, by selections made by the 
teacher. Thus for eight mortal years our thought and 
imagination were confined within the limits of a few piti- 
ful little collections of stories which we read threadbare, 
and finally exhausted, while all this time a great store- 
house full of beautiful things to read was waiting ready 
at hand. If only some one had unlocked the door for us, 
who can tell how much richer and more fruitful our lives 
might have been ! Why were we not allowed to explore 
these rich literary fields, instead of being compelled thus 
to mark time at their entrance? 

With like results we spent golden hours in grinding 
out the senseless tangles of impossible mathematical prob- 
Lack of practical lems never to be met outside the cov- 
value cf studies ers of our dog-eared arithmetics, while 
at the same time we would have been unable to solve 
the simplest problems of home or shop or farm. How 
we puzzled our small heads over the mysteries of partial 
payments, especially arranged for the torment of the 
small boy; over all sorts of discounts never used in 
business ; over profit and loss under conditions that would 
astonish merchant or banker ; over compound proportion 
of truly appalling proportions; over the reduction of all 
but irreducible fractions ; or over problems of imaginary 
hounds chasing imaginary hares for so many leaps of so 
many improbable lengths for such and such a distance, 



THE OLD CURRICULUM 47 

and so on ad infinitum, until we were lost in the maze. 
But did it not, after all, train our powers of thought? 
Perhaps in some degree it did, but think of the oppor- 
tunity we lost of learning how to solve the real problems 
growing out of our actual life and work on the farm ! 
And, besides, these would not only have given us equally 
good mental training, but would at the same time have 
attracted interest to our study of arithmetic, and shown 
us the relation of our school work to the work outside. 
Education might then have appealed more strongly to 
us as the road to efficiency, and more of us might have 
taken it. 

And so also with much of the work in grammar. We 
learned that a sentence is "a thought expressed in words." 
Studies that do not ^^t we really came to believe that a 
relate to life sentence is a thing to be analyzed and 

diagrammed whenever and wherever met. That these 
sentences from the pages of the grammar belonged to 
the same world with the simple speech we were daily 
using, never entered our heads. We puzzled over the 
rules for indirect objects, and tried to understand the 
fine shades of difference between the object and the 
objective complement. We wondered at the distinctions 
causing one word to be classified as an adjective pronoun, 
and another as a pronominal adjective ; and took on faith 
the statement that a noun which expresses amount, dis- 
tance, time or direction has a right to be treated as an 
adverb. These things, all of which may be right and 
true enough, are perhaps of value to the advanced high- 
school student ; but they were fed to helpless children 
in the rural school when they were no more suited to our 
minds than beefsteak to the diet of a babe. There we 
were, at the age best adapted to learning the use of our 



48 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

mother-tongue, compelled to spend our time on its logical 
structure. When we might have been storing our minds 
with beautiful stories and poems, thus learning perfect 
speech by example and imitation, we were studying the 
barren rules of grammar. When we ought to have been 
busy with oral and written speech used to express the 
real experiences and vital interests of our immediate 
lives, we were employed in the deadening process of ana- 
lyzing and diagramming the speech of other people. Un- 
consciously to our benighted minds we were begging for 
bread, but were given stones. 

It was not far different with the remainder of the 
studies. In the study of physiology we were treated as 
Useless versus use- embryo medical students, and made 
ful knowledge to commit to memory the names of all 

the bones of our bodies, and not a few of the muscles 
as well. We were expected to be able to trace the course 
of a particle of food from the time it was taken into the 
mouth until it had passed through all the marvelous trans- 
formations involved in digestion, absorption and assimi- 
lation, and become muscle, or bone, or other tissue. But 
little did we learn about the kind of food we should eat, 
or the manner of its eating. Little did we study con- 
cerning the really important things connected with the 
health and development of our bodies. We accepted 
toothache as one of the woes of childhood, and were 
taught nothing of the care of our teeth. If we had bad 
colds, these were but a part of the inconvenience of the 
winter season, and we did not discover that they are only 
the result of unhygienic living. Contagious diseases were 
to be shunned and dreaded, but we did not know that 
they could be prevented. We ought to have been taught 
how to develop strong, healthy and beautiful bodies, but 



± 



THE OLD CURRICULUM 49 

were instructed in meaningless facts beyond our compre- 
hension and unrelated to our physical needs. 

Hour after hour in the geography class we droned 
the names of unimportant capes, bays, straits, gulfs and 
Time wasted upon peninsulas, which, though we may 
senseless drill since have read and traveled much, we 

have yet to meet outside the old geography. We de- 
veloped great skill in "bounding" all the countries of 
Europe and Asia, but we actually knew very little of 
people or products outside the boundaries of our own 
township. We could glibly tell the names of the rivers, 
large and small, in many states, but had no notion whence 
the little creek that flowed past our playground came 
or whither it went. History meant to us chiefly a suc- 
cession of dates to be "committed," of wars to be traced, 
and of kings and presidents to be learned in chronolog- 
ical order. Great would have been our surprise had it 
dawned on us that there were real people like ourselves 
living and working at the times referred to by our dates, 
our wars, Our kings and presidents. 

But we will not further multiply illustrations. Indeed 
this account of the dreary waste of the precious oppor- 
Curriculum still tunities of childhood in the old dis- 
meager and narrow trict school would have no place at all 
in our present discussion except for the fact that the old 
conditions come so near representing the conditions that 
still exist in many of our rural schools. For the cur- 
riculum that has just been described is that of not a small 
proportion of the district schools of to-day, and the 
methods employed in teaching the subjects are not so 
different in some of them as they might be. But the 
change has begun. It is well under way in many places, 
and not a few of the most progressive rural schools have 



■50 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

a range of studies affording an excellent education for 
the rural child. 

In planning the curriculum for the present-day rural 
school, it must not be forgotten that at least two great 
factors are calling for its enlargement and enrichment. 
First, most of the industrial lines of work formerly car- 
ried on in the home, and affording an excellent course 
in the practical phases of manual training and domestic 
science, have dropped out of the modern home, and must 
be given in the school if the child is not to be deprived of 
them. Second, under our newer ideal of education, as 
we have already seen, we are demanding a more practical 
training, with the aim of affording our children more 
immediate and concrete assistance in the every-day af- 
fairs of their lives ; and particularly must the education 
given in the rural schools relate itself closely to the life 
and work of the farm. 

The old-time home was the center of a varied group 
of industries in which each member of the family, from 
Industrial training the youngest child to the grandparent, 
in old-time home had a part. The flax for the linen of 
the household, and the wool for the clothing were raised 
on the farm, and every phase of their manufacture was 
carried out in the home. The children had a part in the 
clipping, carding, spinning and weaving of the wool. Did 
the son need a suit of clothes, the mother, without the 
help of a fashion-plate, shrunk and pressed the home- 
made cloth, cut it after a generous pattern treasured as 
an heirloom in the family, and made it by hand into the 
garments required. The style may not have been equal 
to that of the present day, but the suit represented a 
home industry from the time the wool was growing on 
the backs of the sheep in the field until it covered the back 



THE OLD CURRICULUM 51 

of the lamb of the household. If a dress was required 
for the baby, or a trousseau for a bride, the process was 
the same ; the farm supplied the materials, and the home 
did the work. 

So it was with what went on the table. The fall "butch- 
ering day" was a great event. There was the bustle of 
Training in do- preparation, the heating of the cal- 
mestic science drons of water, the coming of the 

neighbors to help, and the little thrills of sorrow 
and anticipation with which the children paid a last 
visit to the pens of the victims. There was the 
he-o-he of the men as they soused the porkers in 
the barrel of hot water, the frantic haste of the 
scraping, and the smooth and shiny white skins of the 
pigs as they hung, nose down, from the chains out by the 
shed. And then the cutting up and the salting down 
in barrels, the making of wurst and headcheese, and the 
smoking of the hams out in the old smoke-house ! 

There was also the dairy-house, through which the 
trough ran from the spring, and the rows of shining pans 

for the milk. The cream was put into 
Lessons in cooking , , if,., 

the great stone churn, and the chil- 
dren took turns in working the plunger until the cream 
"broke," and the butter came. The pantry was laden 
with the great loaves of flaky home-made bread, rows 
of pies, jars of cookies fresh from the oven, plates of 
doughnuts and golden cakes. Rows on rows of dried 
apples and peaches hung in festoons from the rafters with 
brave disregard of the whole tribe of bacteria and mi- 
crobes. Great bags of dried sweet corn were suspended 
from the beams of the ceiling. And shelves full of pre- 
served plums, apples and berries were stored against the 
winter season. 



52 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Nor must we forget the workshop with its motley array 
of tools, and its treasure boxes full of odds and ends 
The boy and the suitable for mending anything from 
home workshop the fiddle to the hayrack. In this 
shop was made or repaired much of the furniture for 
the home, and most of the machinery for the farm. And 
the rainy days, which were the busiest of all! It was 
then that the well-worn shoes were half-soled, the har- 
ness oiled and patched, the rakes mended, and the 
scythes and cradles sharpened. 

In this old-time home every one was busy from morn- 
ing till night, week in and week out, with only the rare 
holiday as a relief from the steady toil. And in all the 
industry, the children had a responsible and important 
part. They early learned to use their hands, and to take 
pride in their manual skill ; they learned to work, and 
not to flinch before their tasks. They received an in- 
valuable course in manual training and domestic science, 
which in some of its aspects can never be duplicated in 
the schools no matter how good their equipment or how 
skilful their instruction. For these home industries 
possessed a concreteness hard to simulate in the work 
of the school. Here the incentives were real, the interests 
immediate, and the necessities pressing. 

But these days are gone. The factories have come and 
robbed the home of its varied industries. It is no one's 
Industrial changes ^^^^^ ; it could not be helped. The de- 
in the modern mon of enterprise came among us, 

"^® and we were obliged to change our 

manner of living. The mail carrier brings our mail, and 
the telephone runs our errands. There is little wood to 
cut, and the grocer supplies our fruit and vegetables. 



THE OLD CURRICULUM ^53 

The pigs are now whirled to the city in a train of palace 
cars, passed through a packing-house and returned to 
us at astonishing prices as ham and bacon. And mother 
and the family no longer make the suits of clothes. Per- 
ish the thought ! With the help of a tape measure and 
a printed blank we may obtain the services of the city 
tailor, and you can not tell from the cut of our clothes 
whether we belong to Prairieville or Broadway. The 
baby's dress comes from the catalogue house, and the 
bride's trousseau from the city modiste. Tomatoes and 
sweet corn now grow in tin cans, and apples are picked 
from barrels instead of from the orchard. The steam 
laundry is asking for our washing, and the baker stands 
ready to stock our pantry. Nearly all the old-time in- 
dustries have gone from the home except cooking and 
cleaning, and with modern methods these are very differ- 
ent from what they were in earlier days. 

All this is a grave loss to the education of the child. 
That there are many compensations is true, and no one is 
longing for the "good old days." Far from it; these 
are the best times the world has ever seen in which to 
live a happy and successful life, whether in the town or 
on the farm. But this does not change the fact that 
education is incomplete without careful training of the 
haiid as well as the head. For the work that lies ahead 
requires both. And the school must undertake to sup- 
ply to the child's education what has been lost out of the 
home. That is what the school is for — to make sure that 
our children do not lack necessary training that the home 
and the community, without the help of the school, are 
unable to give. 

The school has taken over many functions that origi- 



54 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

nally belonged to the home. In fact, among primitive 
peoples, the home gives the child all the education he 
The school must receives, for they have no schools, 
take over functions Schools first came into being when it 
lost from home ^^^g ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^^.^ ^^^.^ ^^^^ 

things required in the child's education that the home 
could not give. In our own colonial days the home was 
responsible for teaching the child the elements of reading 
and number before he was sent to school. And the old 
records of the New England town meetings contain many 
accounts of complaints made by the schoolmaster because 
neglectful parents had started their children to school 
"unprepared in their letters and numbers." In such cases 
the child was dismissed from the school until he had 
made up the deficiency. But in our later day the school 
assumes full responsibility for the child's education from 
the first, and does not expect the home to give any in- 
struction. We have even gone so far that the kinder- 
garten takes the child when he is too young to instruct 
in books and teaches him to play ! 

And the school must now take over the training of the 
hand, which the home, with its widely-varied industries 
The school must was formerly able to supply. This 
train the hand is the only way, if this vital part of 

education is not to be lost ; for the home can no longer 
accomplish it. If we are not to become a nation of mere 
readers of books in our education, the schools must pro- 
vide for industrial education fitting our youth for the 
occupations awaiting them. The increased amount of 
schooling we are now giving our children has even led 
them farther and farther away from work with their 
hands ; for the child who formerly worked in the home 
or on the farm for nine months of the year and spent 




< 



THE OLD CURRICULUM 55 

three months in the school studying books, now spends 
from six to nine months in the study of books, and a cor- 
respondingly less time in work. And one who has de- 
voted the greater part of his youth to books, and never 
learned to use his hands, will hardly seek an industry 
when he chooses his vocation. Nor is the remedy to 
have him spend less time in school and more in labor. 
That will not solve the problem. What is needed is for 
the school to provide such work as will train both hand 
and head, and lead to an appreciation of the value and 
dignity of industrial labor. 

This point of view, together with the demand that the 
school shall fit more directly for the life and work of the 

. . farm, calls for the addition of certain 

Manual training, , 1 , ,1 111 

agriculture and do- branches to the rural-school curric- 

mestic science to ulum. Manual training and domes- 
be added . . 11.1 r 

tic science are needed to make up for 

their partial loss from the home, and also to give a more 
scientific and complete preparation in these subjects than 
any home is able to afford. Agriculture must also be 
taught, because that is to be the occupation of most of the 
pupils of the rural school, and because the school can 
greatly increase their efficiency as workers on the farm. 
The new movement throughout the country toward scien- 
tific agriculture makes it all the more imperative that the 
rural school should enter on this line of instruction. The 
introduction of agriculture into the rural schools has al- 
ready doubled or trebled their efficiency in many places. 
It has resulted in increased attendance, in better work in 
all subjects, and in a spirit of loyalty toward the school 
on the part of the community. Through the agency of 
instruction in agriculture, the rural schools have been 
instrumental in adding millions of dollars to the wealth 



56 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

of the country by increasing the yield of corn, oats and 
other crops. There is almost no limit to the service that 
can be rendered by the rural schools in educating the 
boys and girls to modern methods of farming. 

If the children of the farms are to have opportunities 
for education equal to those of the town and city child, 
Music and art to the rural schools can not stop vv^ith 
have a place the subjects that are related to the 

vi^ork-life alone, though these may be the foundation 
of all the others. Personal attainments that have for 
their object the giving of greater satisfaction and happi- 
ness to their possessor belong to the rural child as much 
as to the child of the town. The rural school should 
make music and art a regular part of the course of study 
as is done in the town and city schools. Indeed there 
is much more need for these subjects in the country than 
in the city school, for the reason that the city child 
constantly has opportunities to hear music and to see 
pictures outside the school which the rural child does 
not have. And it is precisely these cultural phases of edu- 
cation that must not be left out of the rural school as 
the curriculum is being reconstructed in the direction 
of making it more practical, effective and inter- 
esting. For, while making a living is the first great neces- 
sity in the lives of most of us, life is, after all, more than 
making a living; and the finer joys, and the satisfaction 
that comes from an appreciation of the beautiful round 
about us, are among the most desirable attainments. 

The changes needed in the rural school curriculum, 
however, are not all to be accomplished by the addition of 
Standpoint and certain studies. The need is fully as 
attitude great that the standpoint and attitude 

toward many of the branches already in the curriculum 



THE OLD CURRICULUM 57 

shall be changed. Almost every subject needs to be vital- 
ized by bringing it closer to the interest and needs of the 
pupils. 

Instead of the dreary set of school readers read over 
and over, we must open up to the child the great store- 

^, . . t. house of inspiring books, and train 

Changes in teach- ... r & > 

ing, reading, arith- his mterests so that he will care to 

luetic and other j-ead them. This means that the rural 
subjects 

school must provide a generous library 

especially selected to fit the development and interests of 
children. It must have historical novels, and well-writ- 
ten histories. It must have simple books on science, in- 
troducing the child to the rich field of modern scientific 
discoveries and inventions, and especially such as relate 
most closely to the life of the farm. 

The teaching of arithmetic must omit the tangled logical 
problems dealing with impractical conditions, and em- 
phasize the arithmetic of the farm, the shop and the 
home. Let the arithmetic taught be correlated directly 
with the lessons in agriculture, manual training, domestic 
science, the practical measurements employed on the 
farm, and the accounts of the household, and it will prove 
both practical and interesting in a degree hitherto un- 
known. 

Similarly, the physiology will need to be related more 
directly to questions of the health and development of 
the children. Not so much a course in anatomy and 
technical physiology is needed as training in hygiene. 
Geography can be made vastly more valuable and inter- 
esting by eliminating the trivial and unnecessary, and 
putting in its place matter dealing with peoples, places, 
products and industries closely related to the life of our 
own people and times. And so on with every line of 



58 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

study. Let the aim no longer be to train a more or less 
mythical set of powers of the child by a senseless grind 
over meaningless exercises supposed to develop mental 
strength. But let everything that we teach start with 
some present interest or activity of the child, and lead 
as directly as possible to efficiency in meeting the actual 
problems that lie ahead. 

If it be objected that there is not time or place in the 
rural school for all these things that are proposed, it may 
iHow time is to be ^e answered that if the unnecessary 
secured for new from the old curriculum is left out, 
subjects ^^^ ^i^g remainder correlated with the 

newer subjects as it can and should be, the course of 
study will be even less crowded than it is at the present 
time. It will also be vastly more interesting to those 
who study and teach it, and of infinitely greater value 
to all our people. It will be the purpose in the following 
chapter to outline and discuss such a reorganized curric- 
ulum for the rural school as we have proposed. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. What are the educational standards in your schooi 
community ? Do the patrons desire a broad education for 
their children, or do they think the school which they 
themselves attended is good enough for their children? 

2. The first thing necessary in carrying out any line 
of progress or reform is to make people want the im- 
provements you seek to promote. How can you make the 
constituency of the rural school want a broader and 
richer curriculum ? 

3. How far does the picture drawn of the studies as 
taught in the old-time school apply to the rural school of 



THE OLD CURRICULUM 59 

your locality? (For example, in arithmetic, geography, 
grammar, physiology.) 

4. Compare the work and the play of an average 
country boy of to-day with the work and play of his 
father or his grandfather at the same age ; make a similar 
comparison of the country girl's life with that of her 
mother or grandmother, 

5. Trace the actual number of vocations outside the 
home now required to set the table for a family meal and 
compare with conditions a generation ago. 

6. Make a list of all the farm boys you can discover 
who have gone through a town high school. How many 
of them returned to farming for a permanent vocation ? 

7. How many books suitable for the reading of chil- 
dren are contained in your school library ? Can you form 
an accurate estimate of how many are available in each 
home represented in your school ? Make a list of all the 
books each of your pupils can remember having read. 
What do the results suggest? 

8. Could your school district afford to spend several 
hundred dollars in a school library and regularly appro- 
priate fifty dollars a year for additions? How can the 
patrons be made to feel the need of such a step? 



CHAPTER IV 

THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 

What, then, shall be taught in the rural schools ? Shall 
we desert the time-honored fundamentals of reading, 
writing and arithmetic ? Shall we teach the child how to 
test seed-corn, judge stock, garden and make boxes, 
but leave him helpless in the matter of spelling, geog- 
raphy and history? Is there danger that we shall be- 
come so enamored of the new that we shall forget the 
old? 

There are many earnest people who fear these very 
things. But their fears are founded on an imperfect un- 
Valuable in old derstanding of the spirit of the new 
conserved education. No one who is intelligently 

seeking to reorganize the rural-school curriculum is will- 
ing to let go the fundamentals of education, the tools 
of knowledge which all must have. On the contrary, 
one of the great aims of the new ideal of the curriculum 
is to vitalize and make more perfect and usable the 
I "three R's" — to fortify the work of reading that it may 
mean much more to the learner than it has meant under 
the older plan; to make the subject of arithmetic a thou- 
sand times more practical and useful than it has ever been 
before, and to increase the efficiency in its operations 
beyond what has obtained in the old type of schools. It 
is the purpose to put such interest into the matter of writ- 

60 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 6i 

ing that the child will desire to write well because he has 
something that he wants to write; and in the subject 
of geography to make its dry bones live because clothed 
with subject-matter of vital interest and importance. 

The method by which this is to be done is by first of 
all changing the method of organization within the curric- 
Point of emphasis ulum— by changing the center of 
to be changed emphasis, in order that the matter to 

be learned may be approached more easily and naturally, 
and be related more closely to the life of the learner. 
Every one, old and young, knows from his experience, 
that we are more interested in the things that lie closest 
to our lives, — the activities in our home, the occupation 
that claims our attention, the vocation that we mean ul- 
timately to enter on, than we are in mere abstractions. 
For example, with what zeal one will study even a rail- 
way time-table if he is about to make a journey! And, 
those who are planning a trip to Europe enter on a mas- 
tery of its geography and history far more thorough than 
they would ever attain if studying them as an assigned 
task. The boy who needs to learn the new rules of the 
ball game does not require some one to compel him to 
get his lesson ; the necessity of his interest compels him. 

The great thing, therefore, is to connect the work of 
the school so closely with the interests and activities of 
School interests ^^^ home, its work and its play, that 
related to home in- the incentives to study may be imme- 
diate and real. It is this imme- 
diate vital interest that saves the boy from becoming 
dull and disinterested, and the girl from becoming 
listless and inefficient in her work. Many a child 
has quit school before completing the course of study, 
not because he was compelled to stay out to work, 



62 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

but because interest failed, owing to the lack of 
connection between his school work and his outside inter- 
ests and activities. Many others have continued in 
school until they have obtained a smattering of what it 
had to teach, and later found little immediate use for 
what they had learned. 

The aim, therefore, in reorganizing the rural school cur- 
riculum is to get a foundation of actual interest on which 
to build a mastery of the fundamentals of knowledge; 
and then to go on and add certain vital matter to the 
training of rural children which they have heretofore 
lacked. The purpose is to find in the daily lives and ac- 
tivities of the pupils the incentives that will lead to a 
better and more complete learning of the elementary 
branches, and in addition, so attach the pupils to the 
school and its work that they will desire to remain for a 
much more extended and helpful education than they 
are now receiving. 

This fundamental basis of interest is easily found in 
the lives of the rural school pupils. For they all come 
Rural life homo- from homes founded on the same 
geneous type of occupation, and interested 

in the same industrial problems. In the town or city 
school, the pupils represent ten or twenty different oc- 
cupations ; but in the rural school they represent only the 
one industry of agriculture with its supplemental occu- 
pations. The homes are agricultural homes, the interests 
on the vocational side are agricultural interests. There- 
fore what will appeal to one group of pupils as an in- 
centive to effort will appeal to all the others of the same 
community. Knowledge or skill adapted to use on one 
farm, will be adapted to use on the other farms of the 
locality. 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 63 

These important facts make it possible to organize the 
carricukim of the rural school on a much more simple 
Core of new ^nd practical basis than that of a town 

curriculum school. Nature study as related to 

the open country, agriculture adapted to the local needs 
and conditions, manual training of the type most related 
to the needs of the farm, home economics suited to the 
conditions of the farm home, — these are the basis of the 
rural-school curriculum, the core around which the other 
subjects are to be grouped. In these will be found the 
sources of the interests and incentives that will lead to the 
mastery of the branches constituting the tools of edu- 
cation. It is not, therefore, that these latter branches 
are to be omitted or neglected ; they are only to be set in 
their proper relation to the interests and experience of 
the pupil. Only those parts of the old subjects that 
should plainly give way to more useful material are to 
be supplanted by the new. Not annihilation, but reor-_ 
<^amaation is what is proposed. 

What shall be the plan of the reorganized rural-school 
curriculum? How shall it differ from the old curric- 
Plan of the new ulum on the one hand, and from the 
curriculum curriculum of town and city schools 

on the other? For it is clear that the old curriculum 
was faulty both in the meagerness of the material it of- 
fered, and the emphasis it put on the technical and theo- 
retical as against the practical and concrete. And it is 
also evident that the curriculum best adapted for the city 
school is not the one for the rural school, where the inter- 
ests and activities outside the school are entirely dif- 
ferent. 

While the interests related to the life and work of the 
farm or agriculture — nature study, stock raising, the 



64 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

practical handicrafts and domestic science — will consti- 
tute the basis of the curriculum, this does not mean that 

„ . , , the work of the school is to be lim- 

Vocational sub- 
jects alone not ited to these subjects. It rather sig- 

enough j^jfigg that they shall constitute the 

point of departure, the foundation of incentive, for the 

other studies. The country boy and girl can no more 

stop with these vocational subjects alone than the youth 

preparing for a trade can afford to study solely the 

mechanics of that trade without any knowledge of other 

things. It is to be remembered that the workers on the 

farm are men and women before they are farmers, and 

as such have a right to the help and inspiration that grow 

from a knowledge of the world's history, its literature, 

music and art; they demand and have a right to the 

broadening influence that comes from contact with the 

field of science and invention. In short, the men and 

women of the farm need as good an education as any 

other class of American citizens. 

What, then, is to be the organization of the new curric- 
ulum? On what shall the child begin when he first 
enters school? How shall he proceed, and what shall 
he study from grade to grade ? 

Let us first answer in general, that under the reorgan- 
ized curriculum the pupil will primarily study things. 

Difference between ^"^ ^^^y secondarily will he study 
old and new cur- books; and that he will actually do 
^^^ his lessons, in field or shop or home 

or garden, as well as sit at a desk and learn them. The 
new curriculum will change the point of emphasis from 
cramming the head with information, to applying the 
knowledge learned to one's actual life and work. For 
the only true way to learn a thing is to live it. 



4? % '<^ ;m^; 



# 






y f 







\:^i 



•%/^ 






/#• 



^^ '%ii^#*:>''' 






■^ 



■im-. 



i^ci 



ii'^ 






^' 









^#c...^- 












^^s.^^^^^^'.;, 






^^.r^^'^ 



/' 



^^, .'iviriEiS\ 






a^ 



The new centre of correlation in the rural school curriculum consists 
of practical subjects 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 65 

And this point of view will first of all influence the 
child's starting-point as he begins school. The old plan 
was to take him fresh from play and the activities of the 
home and the field, and placing him in a stiff seat with 
the admonition to "be quiet," set him at work learning 
symbols. His muscles, aching for the activity to which 
they are accustomed, cry out against the torture of their 
imprisonment. His mind, used to the stimulus of real 
problems and living interests, protests against the empti- 
ness of the task which it is given. But regardless of the 
danger to his physical development from the incarcer- 
ation in his prison-seat, and in spite of the equal danger 
to the development of his mental powers, he is required 
to submit ; for he must "learn to read," and must study 
his "numbers" and his "language." 

The result of this irrational method of introducing 
a child to his education is known to every observant 
Stupefying effects teacher. At first the average child is 
of old method alert and interested. The sheer 

novelty of the change from home to school stimulates him. 
His mind must be active on something, so it busies itself 
on the lessons prescribed, and he learns to read and num- 
ber. This stage lasts a year or two and then comes the 
change. The novelty has worn off, school is no longer new, 
the teacher has ceased to be infallible, and the books have 
become a bore. The child loses interest in his work. He 
ceases to be bright and alert. If he is just an avera^ 
child he becomes dull and fails to master his lessons ; 
he does not like school and stays out on the smallest 
excuse. After a year or two more of desultory attend- 
ance he drops out of school for good, having reached 
about the fourth grade. If he is an exceptional child — 
one in ten or twenty — he survives the process we have 



(£ BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

thrust on him and goes on until he completes the course. 
But the average child, and the child who is below the 
average, loses out; they become educational castaways. 
The tragedy of it ! Dante says a tragedy is "a bad ending 
of a good beginning." And how many bad endings of 
good beginnings are we responsible for with our un- 
natural and senseless methods ! 

Under the reorganized curriculum the child will enter 
on the field of learning by a different pathway. Instead 
The new curricu- ^f centering all his energies on the 
lum connects with symbols of reading and number as if 
home activities ^j^^y ^^^.^ ^^e "chief end of man," he 

will simply continue the lines of activity already begun 
in the farm home. He will continue to observe nature, 
but with this difference ; his observation will now be 
under the guidance and direction of a teacher and will 
therefore be nature study. He will continue his interest 
in the crops and animals of the farm ; but because he is 
now under skilled instruction, he will be studying agri- 
culture. He will continue to use his hands in the con- 
struction of objects or their pictures, but because he is 
now being taught how to make them, he is learning 
manual training or drawing. The girl will go on with 
her sewing, her cooking and her housekeeping, but she 
will be taught such methods and developed in such stand- 
ards of doing these things that she will be studying do- 
mestic science. Not that the names agriculture, manual 
training and domestic science, will at the beginning be 
needed to describe what the children are taught, but the 
foundations of these very important subjects are being 
laid. 

And the reading and the number and the language? 
We now come to them — the child now comes to them. In- 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 67 

deed he may start these things from the first, but they 
supplement the real and concrete activities instead of 
Reading, language monopohzing all the child's time and 
and number follow effort. Nor will he learn to read any 
less rapidly than under the old system, for now he has an 
interest and an enthusiasm in his work that extends to 
all his studies. Besides, he now feels that he needs to 
know how to read, and write, and number. For there 
are the interesting things to be read about — the stories 
of the birds and the flowers and the people concerning 
whom he is learning ; there are interesting things to write 
and tell about — things that he is doing in his nature 
study, his gardening, and all the rest. Here he naturally 
comes to enter on his language work; and there are the 
real necessities for numbering things — counting and add- 
ing and multiplying in the actual problems being met in 
his manual work, his concrete geography, his instruction 
in agriculture or the other real studies of the school. 

All this is not to say that the child will learn to read 
without any care being given to reading, or that he will 

Teaching of the not need to be taught arithmetic or in- 
fundamentals vital- , . , - , t^. 

ized structed m the use of language. It 

is entirely certain that he will need the best of teaching 
in all these things, but the point is, that the teaching can 
be better, and that the child's interest in these formal 
studies will be stronger and more effective when they 
rest on a foundation of subjects that fit directly into the 
actual life and experience of the pupil. Not only is this 
truth in accord with the principles of good psychology, 
but it is being tested and proved in hundreds of schools 
which have dared step out of the well-known path of tra- 
dition into the highway of greater freedom and common 
sense in the reorganizing of their curricula. 



68 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Further, much valuable time is lost and interest de- 
stroyed by undertaking to teach the young child what 
he is not yet ready for, and what, at the proper time, he 
will apprehend easily and quickly, or even learn for him- 
self. Think of all the time devoted to teaching six-year- 
old children the "number combinations," while the child's 
brain is yet undeveloped for the association processes re- 
quired in such work! Let the boy or girl grow a little 
older, and find need for these "combinations," and they 
are learned as if by magic. If the teaching of number 
during the first two years in school is made incidental to 
other subjects, not neglecting it, but making it grow 
naturally out of the branches where it is needed, it is safe 
to say that the mastery of arithmetic will not suffer in 
the least. And such is the case also with formal language 
instruction, which should be an outgrowth of the work 
being done in nature study, geography, industrial work 
and the other concrete subjects of the school course, and 
not, at least in its earlier stages, a formal study in itself 
at all. 

The principles just stated for first initiating a child into 
the work of the school will hold throughout the course. 
Not discipline but The immediate occupational interests, 
efficiency the aim taken in connection with the activities 
later to be entered on, should be the controlling factor. 
Not arithmetical tangles or grammatical complexities for 
the purpose of mental gymnastics, but living subjects that 
give the knowledge, develop the attitude and lead to the 
skill required by intelligent progressive men and women, 
must dominate the curriculum. For not an intangible 
veneer of culture nor a doubtful amount of discipline, 
but efficiency in occupation is the fundamental aim of the 
rural school. And on this foundation of efficiency a bet- 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 69 

ter culture and a truer discipline than we have yet known 
will be built. 

The most practical and natural starting-point for work 
in the rural school is nature study. For at the age when 
Nature study the ^he child first enters school he is most 
child's starting- fully alive to his environment. His 
P°^^^ senses are at their best, his mind in- 

quisitive, his interest keen in all that touches his life and 
its activities. He is an explorer, ready to enter on adven- 
tures of discovery in the rich world of nature that lies 
about him. Now is the time to lay the foundation for 
later work in geography, in agriculture, in hygiene, in 
science. Here is the basis for training in language, and 
here an endless number of rich themes for stories to be 
told or read or written, and for pictures to be drawn or 
painted. 

In nature study also is the opportunity to teach an 
appreciation for the life of the open country. Because 
those who give their lives to agriculture must live in 
direct and immediate contact with the great out-of-doors, 
the rural school should especially seek to cultivate in the 
child a deep and reverent appreciation for nature in all 
her moods. The love of field and flower, joy in the songs 
of birds and the hum of bees, and delight in the waving 
green of corn and the gold of wheat, may not directly 
affect the yield of crops or the price of products. Yet 
they are one of the great compensations belonging to the 
worker of the soil and will add riches to any life. 

One of the causes of desertion of the farm for the life 
of the city is the monotony and sameness of the work of 
The penalty of the farm. How greatly could this be 

blindness to beauty relieved if every boy and girl could 
learn to be interested in every changing phase of nature, 



70 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

and come to enjoy its companionship! But to many of 
those who spend their lives in the country, the beauties 
of which the city dweller dreams and for which he longs 
while imprisoned in his narrow shop or office, have be- 
come a mere commonplace and possess no significance. 
The teeming hills are often looked on as but so many 
acres to be plowed or harvested ; the sun setting in a blaze 
of glory only suggests milking time; and the multiform 
life around us is regarded solely in the light of its market 
value. Let the rural school teach the children of the 
farms to see beauty as well as profit in their environment, 
and much will have been done to cure the farm of its 
lack of attractiveness, and a great source of satisfaction 
and joy will have been added to the daily toil. 

More concretely, the teaching of nature study will 
center about such aims as : ( i ) to give a first-hand 
knowledge of nature, that the child may come to under- 
stand and love it, and more fully obey its laws and claim 
its rewards; (2) to learn the useful and harmful in 
nature, as a guide to better hygienic living, and more 
successful farming; (3) to establish the basis for subse- 
quent study of the natural sciences, including geography 
and agriculture, and to obtain a point of departure for 
the study of language. 

Nature study is the basis for all the other branches 
that deal with our physical environment. Out of nature 
. . study geography gradually emerges — 

riculture have ^0^ the catechetical geography of the 

foundation in na- older day, but the geography that tells 
of the earth as the home of man. Be- 
ginning wherever the experience of the pupils touches 
nature in their immediate environment, geography will 
proceed out to other parts of the home land and to other 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 71 

lands. What people live in each country, what they raise 
and eat and wear, the language they speak, the homes 
and schools they have, how they travel and work and 
play, what they send us for our use, and what we return 
to them — these are some of the topics the new geography 
will include. 

Agriculture is a natural outgrowth of nature study. 
Indeed, a great part of nature study is agriculture under 
another guise. It has been objected that the elementary 
school can not hope to teach agriculture, but must per- j 
force leave it for the high school. Of agriculture as an 1 
organized science this is true, but much valuable agricul- 
ture can be taught without a full mastery of its science. 
Said that great apostle of agriculture. Doctor Seaman; 
A. Knapp, "Agriculture consists of one-eighth science, ■ 
three-eighths art, and one-half business methods." The 
best proof, however, of what the rural school can do in \ 
agriculture is what it is now accomplishing in scores of J 
schools scattered through many states. The children are 
learning the best modes of planting and cultivating crops, 
how to select seed, the rotation of crops, the harmful 
insects and weeds, the art of gardening, the raising of 
poultry, the care of stock and many other useful things. 
Practical agriculture is already an accomplished fact in 
the rural schools that have reorganized their curricula. 

Home economics as a science is also beyond the age and 

grasp of the child in the elementary school. But, as in the 

TT . subject of agriculture, there is much 

Home economics •• ° ' 

begun in the ele- concrete and useful matter that can 
mentary school ^^ better taught at this age than any 

other. The beginning of the art of sewing, the selection 
and care of foods, plain cooking, serving, the routine 
care of the home, nursing, the principles of decorating. 



72 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

cleaning and keeping the house — these are more art than 
science and are wholly adapted to the work of the ele- 
mentary school. Girls from the fifth to the eighth grades 
are at the stage of development when interest in the 
duties of the home should be taking root, and when girls 
should become a real help to their mothers in the care 
of the household. The time is therefore ripe for instruc- 
tion along the line of these interests, and the opportunity 
is present for thus coordinating the work of the school 
and the home. 

Personal habits and standards, one's attitude toward 
the care of the body, rules of living, methods of eating 
Habits and hygi- ^"^ sleeping and resting, are devel- 
ene of first im- oped early in life. James tells us that 

portance ^^^^ habits are well "set" by the time 

we have reached our middle teens. This fact gives one 
great reason, therefore, for making practical hygiene an 
important subject in the curriculum. And this instruc- ( 
tion should have particular bearing on right living under \ 
the conditions imposed by the farm. Food, its different I 
qualities and adaptability to seasons and the types of 
labor ; the purity of drinking water ; the hygiene of cloth- 
ing, and its seasonal varieties; the relations of work, 
recreation and play ; the care of the skin, nails, teeth and 
hair ; the effects of tobacco in reducing physical efficiency ; 
the more obvious facts bearing on the relation of bacteria 
to food and to disease ; the means to be taken to protect 
against the common ailments or the spread of contagious 
diseases, — these are practical matters which every child 
can be taught without waiting for mastery of technical 
science as a foundation. 

Manual training in its more technical aspects is not a 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 73 

subject for the earlier grades of the elementary school, 

but should be left for the last two years, or even for the 

, , . . hidi school, where the latter is avail- 

Manual training a'' ^^ ' ,,,i 11 

part of the cur- able. Much valuable knowledge can, 

riculum however, be given as early even as 

the fifth grade. Boys can be taught the care and use 
of tools, the making of simpler articles for the farm or 
the home, the nature of the different woods, their avail- 
ability for various uses, their finish and protection, and 
many other useful lines of information. The handling of 
tools in the school should result in every boy being sup- 
plied with a bench and a full complement of tools in the 
home shop, together with the different varieties of lumber 
needed for miscellaneous work about the house and barns. 

Music should constitute a part of the rural-school 
program. The country child has a full right to the finer 
Music and art to aspects of culture. He will learn 
be included music as readily as the city child and 

enjoy it not less. Every schoolhouse should have a piano 
or an organ as a part of its equipment, and singing should 
be as carefully taught as any other subject. A practical 
method for the cultivation of appreciation for music is 
through the use of the "talking-machine," which can 
now be had at a very reasonable price, and which repro- 
duces good music with artistic excellence. 

Nor should the study of art be neglected, — not a study 
of the technical rules of painting, but training in the ap- 
preciation of good pictures. The great masterpieces 
are now available in excellent copies at very small prices, 
and should form a part of the course of study for every 
pupil. The result will be not only a love of art, but the in- 
troduction of worthy pictures into the home. In one west- 



74 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ern district where such study was taken up in the school, 
more than one hundred good pictures were framed in the 
school manual-training shop and hung in the homes of 
the pupils within one year. 

The reorganized curriculum must give ample oppor- 
tunity for the study of history. The man or woman of 
History to deal to-day is a part of the great civiliza- 
with life of people tion that had its beginnings in the far- 
away past and leads on to a limitless future. It is a part 
of education to come into close and vital relation with this 
civilization, to feel a kinship with great personages, to 
enter into great movements and events and feel one's self 
a part of the whole. This is to be done through a study 
of history. Nor should the history be of wars and politics 
alone, but should reveal the life and spirit of peoples, the 
growth of institutions, the rise of inventions, the devel- 
opment of wealth and industries. It should bring before 
us the lives of the great men and women of all times, the 
deeds they have done, the books they have written, the 
machines they have made, or the laws they have enacted. 
In short, history should unroll before the child a pan- 
orama of life, at its noblest and best, to serve as a stimu- 
lus to his ambition and a guide to his acts. 

Practical civics should constitute an important part of 
the school course. This does not mean that the elemen- 
Importance of tary pupil shall be required to study 

concrete civics the state and federal constitutions, or 

master the intricacies of the governmental machinery. 
Too much of this kind of matter has already been imposed 
on our children. The study of civics should begin at the 
points where the township, county, state or federal gov- 
ernment touches the interests of the pupil. How the 
school is supported and controlled; how the bridges and 



THE REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 75 

roads are built and repaired ; the responsibility and duties 
of township and county officers; the work of health 
officers; quarantine regulations and their need; postal 
rules and regulations ; the school law as related to pupils 
and patrons, — these and similar topics suggest what may 
well be taught the child in civics. 

Such, then, is the basis of the reorganized curriculum, 
the core around which other work will center. Reading, 
language and arithmetic will not be neglected. Indeed, 
they will be more efficiently taught and better learned 
than in the old type of school, for the spirit and the mo- 
tives will be changed. And what has been largely a 
mechanical task will become pregnant with interest and 
value. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. Is there any danger that we shall become so inter- 
ested in the newer subjects of agriculture, manual train- 
ing and home economics that we shall neglect other sub- 
jects? How may we guard against such a result? 

2. Make a list of all the occupations represented by 
the pupils of a rural school, and compare with a list of the 
occupations represented by the pupils of a town school. 
What bearing has the result on the possibility of voca- 
tional training in each type of school? 

3. Have you known children who seemed bright and 
capable when they first entered school to become dull and 
listless after a year or two of attendance? How far is 
the school responsible for all such laggards ? 

4. Make a study of the reorganized curriculum as 
shown in the drawing of the tree. Then make another 
similar drawing representing the curriculum as is exists 



']6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

in the old type of school. Compare the efficiency of the 
two methods of education. 

5. Suppose a teacher agrees that nature study is the 
best point of departure in teaching the child but does not 
know enough about nature himself to make this method 
effective; what are the dangers to be guarded against? 
What is the remedy ? 

6. What use can be made of music to render the rural 
school and the life of the rural home more attractive? 
What percentage of children can with proper instruction 
be made fair singers ? Would a piano be a good invest- 
ment for a rural school ? How many of your pupils have 
one in their homes ? 

7. Do you believe that good pictures can be made as 
educative as good literature? If you were asked to 
recommend pictures suitable for schoolroom decoration 
and study, what ones would you select? How would 
your list differ if you were recommending for the home? 

8. Is it possible to lead children to like history? Do 
you count any teaching of history or literature a success 
that does not result in an interest in the subject? How 
much bearing has the teacher's own interest in any branch 
to do with the pupil's attitude toward it? 



CHAPTER V 

CORRELATION 

The curriculum has in recent years grown not only 
vastly richer and more interesting, but much fuller, as 
well. The broadening of education and the demand for 
studies of a more practical type have thus placed an in- 
creasing burden on both pupil and teacher. So much 
material has been added that the elementary course of 
study now includes a greater variety and amount of sub- 
ject-matter than was required for admission to college 
several generations ago. And the high-school graduate 
of to-day has certainly been forced to cover more ground 
than was demanded to graduate from Harvard at the time 
when Longfellow was a member of the faculty. 

The rural school has also felt the effect of this change. 
To the reading, arithmetic and writing of the earlier 
Growth of rural- schools, geography was added, and 
school curriculum then grammar. History soon found 
its way in, and was followed by physiology and that by 
language lessons. Then came nature study. Music and 
drawing next added their claims. And now come the 
formidable trio, agriculture, manual training and do- 
mestic science, each of which offers almost limitless op- 
portunities for extension and subdivision. It is evident 
therefore that we have greatly enriched the curriculum 
and made it vastly more helpful; but we have also 
doubled and trebled the amount to be learned and taught. 

17 



78 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

It requires no argument to show that this expansion of 
the curriculum, which represents a true social demand 

Danger o£ over- ^^^ "°^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^"^ ^''^^P °^ 
working teacher educators, can not go on indefinitely. 

and pupil There are those who say that we are 

already asking too much of the child, to the danger of his 
physical health and development. Certain it is, at least, 
that we have overwhelmed the rural teacher with the 
amount and variety of the work we have thrust on him. 
It is doubtful whether the rural child has been over- 
worked; he does not go to school regularly enough, and 
the school year is not long enough to injure his health. 
But there is grave danger in another direction: namely, 
that we shall attempt to teach him so much in so short a 
time that he will learn nothing well. It is possible to 
hurry pupils over so great an amount of matter that none 
of it is mastered. They may get a smattering of many 
fields of knowledge and still not know much about any 
particular field. They may learn to do a great variety of 
things indifferently, but fail to do anything well. 

Nor is the remedy for this unfortunate situation to re- 
fuse the newer subjects admittance to the course of study. 
Principles under- ^^^r this is in effect saying that the 
lying revision of old school was good enough for our 
curriculum parents, therefore it is good enough 

for our children. Some are inclined to cry "fad" when- 
ever anything new is proposed ; but this is the essence of 
stagnation and fogyism. The better plan is to examine 
the curriculum with two questions in mind : ( i ) whether 
it contains any matter that might well give way to the 
new subjects proposed; and (2) whether by improving 
the organization of the curriculum we can not find a place 



CORRELATION 79 

for the new without adding to the burdens of either 
learner or teacher. To put the matter concretely, agri- 
culture, manual training and domestic science are in- 
sistently demanding a place in the rural-school curricu- 
lum of the present day. How can we find a place for 
them without injustice to pupil or teacher or to other 
necessary subjects? 

The first phase of the question has already been an- 
swered in part in the foregoing chapter on the reorgan- 
The principle of ^^^^ curriculum, where the possibility 
correlation of eliminating much relatively useless 

matter was shown. Hence this topic need not again be 
discussed. But a not less important factor in the matter 
is that of introducing better organization into the cur- 
riculum through correlation. 

Without concerning ourselves about a technical defi- 
nition, we may say that correlation means the combining 
What correla- ^^ bringing together of different sub- 

tioi^ is jects, or parts of subjects, that are 

naturally related. Thus certain parts of geography and 
history are most naturally and easily taught together. 
Language is usually better learned in connection with 
other subjects than when studied separately. Arithmetic 
naturally finds its most practical and helpful exercises in 
connection with agriculture, manual training, or some 
other concrete subject. 

Such subjects as are thus related can be taught to- 
gether, not only with great saving of time, but also with 
enormous increase of efficiency. A language exercise 
growing out of a lesson in cooking, a nature study ex- 
cursion, or the testing of seed-corn performs the double 
service of training in expression while at the same time it 



8o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

helps to carry out the work in domestic science, agricul- 
ture, or whatever else is under consideration. Similarly, 
a large part of the arithmetic required in the elementary 
school can best be taught in connection with the problems 
of the farm, the shop, the kitchen, or the school garden. 
And this method is both natural and right; for in the 
actual affairs outside the school the child never has the 
necessity of language exercises separated from the im- 
mediate necessity of expressing something that needs to 
be said ; nor does he meet the need of working arithmetic 
problems of a fanciful and unreal sort, but rather those 
immediately connected with what he is doing on the farm 
or in the shop. The closer, therefore, we can keep lan- 
guage and number tied up with the real and concrete ex- 
periences of the child, the more efficient and useful will 
be his knowledge of them. 

How great an incentive the concrete interests may be- 
come in leading to mastery was discovered by a manual- 
Correlation stimu- training teacher in a consolidated 
lates interest school. In the manual-training class 

was a boy of some thirteen years who was skilled in the 
use of his fingers but indifferent to arithmetic and me- 
chanical drawing. One day Joe came to his teacher, all 
excitement. If Joe would make the body of a runabout 
in the manual-training shop, his father would purchase 
the running gear and engine and give him the machine. 
But the teacher demurred at the request that he start at 
once on the work. He said to Joe, "You know you can 
not do the required drawing and computations for this 
job. You don't know your arithmetic well enough, and 
you are careless in your drawing." Joe was disappointed, 
but not discouraged. So he made this tentative proposi- 
tion to his teacher: "Suppose I do get my arithmetic 



CORRELATION 8i 

and drawing?" "When you have done that satisfacto- 
rily," promised the teacher, "I will see you through the 
construction." That was enough ; Joe now needed these 
branches in his business, and he went to work at them. 
He made arithmetic and drawing the great aim of his 
life ; he figured constructions, drew to scale, and kept on 
figuring and drawing until he was fully master of all 
that was required for the work in hand. Then his teacher 
started him upon the automobile, and Joe is to-day driv- 
ing it with great pride. But better still, Joe has kept up 
his interest in arithmetic and drawing, and is now leader 
of his class in both of these subjects. What Joe needed, 
and what many another boy needs, is an immediate in- 
centive for his work growing out of some interesting 
activities of his daily life; this is to say that he needs 
better correlation in his work. 

Correlation can not be forced. The subjects or topics 
put together must naturally belong together, and must 
Correlation must grow clearer and more interesting and 
be natural practical for their union. The actual 

life and experience of the child is really the basis of all 
true correlation ; things that the child finds belonging to- 
gether in his activities can well be put together in teach- 
ing him. But no amount of combining or relating ex- 
cept as these relations are clearly seen by the pupil and 
felt by him to be natural and right will serve ; for false 
correlation may be as artificial as the method that ignores 
all correlation, and therefore only result in jumble and 
confusion. 

An amusing illustration of an attempt at forced corre- 
lation was heard in a school where the teacher had come 
to know just enough of correlation to make it a fad, but 
not enough fully to comprehend it. She had learned that 



82 BETTER RUR.\L SCHOOLS 

nature study is a good basis for correlation, but did not 
understand how to use it for this purpose. On a certain 
day the class was to study the grasshopper ; so everything 
in the school from morning till night concerned grass- 
hoppers. The morning scripture-lesson was chosen from 
the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, in which the writer, 
drawing a picture of the weakness of age says, "And the 
grasshopper shall be a burden." Special emphasis was 
placed on this statement, and the weight of a grasshopper 
estimated. The arithmetic lesson consisted of the solu- 
tion of problems having to do with the number of legs 
so many grasshoppers would have, and the number of 
jumps required for a grasshopper to travel such and 
such a distance. The spelling lesson dealt wholly with 
the names of the parts of the grasshopper. The language 
lesson was made up of grasshopper stories. The drawing 
lesson consisted of pictures of grasshoppers. For general 
exercises the teacher told a story of great plagues of 
grasshoppers visiting different sections of the country. 
And for a geography lesson, the grasshopper region of 
early days in the Middle West was considered. In fact 
this was a grasshopper day in the school. The children 
read grasshoppers, talked grasshoppers and thought 
grasshoppers from morning until night. The teacher 
prided herself that she was using the "method of correla- 
tion," whereas she was only wasting time on a ridiculous 
device possessing neither value nor sense. The trouble 
was that grasshoppers were not naturally related in any 
way to the experience of the pupils, but were forced on 
them. There was no natural basis for the correlations 
made. Attempts at correlation just as fruitless, if not so 
ludicrous, are not uncommon. 

The reason why nature study, gardening, cooking, corn- 



CORRELATION 83 

judging, the handicrafts and school excursions are the 

best basis for correlation is that they involve practical 

T J- . • ^ and immediate interests, and supply 

Immediate mter- . ' ^^ -^ 

ests the natural the necessity for language, spelling, 
basis of correlation arithmetic, drawing, etc. The boy 
who is interested in an experiment in corn raising, or the 
girl who is interested in cooking a new kind of dish, will 
naturally desire to tell about it ; here, then, is the oppor- 
tunity for a language lesson. For the first thing neces- 
sary in learning either to write or speak is to have some^ 
thing to say that one really wants to express to others. 
Similarly, if the pupils are at work in manual training 
or domestic science, there will be mathematical relations 
to solve ; this gives the best basis for the teaching of a 
practical and concrete arithmetic. If the child is making 
a box he needs arithmetic and drawing; his own ex- 
perience and desire will demand them. Therefore arith- 
metic and drawing naturally and easily correlate with 
these subjects. If he is testing seed-corn or computing 
the waste in uncleaned clover-seed, he must know frac- 
tions and percentage in order to solve and state his prac- 
tical problem ; the best teaching of fractions and per- 
centage that he can possibly have, therefore, is that con- 
nected with these real experiences. And so we might go 
on multiplying illustrations of this principle among the 
other school subjects ; much of geography and history 
are vitally related and can be best taught and understood 
by having this relation made clear and explicit; and not 
a small proportion of our literature is closely connected 
with historical events, with the forms of nature round 
about us, or with experiences common to daily life. It 
is at such points as these that correlation '"« both natu<*al 
and necessary. 



84 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Two great reasons, then, for making use of the princi- 
ple of correlation in the rural school are: (i) correla- 
tion saves time, and (2) it makes the matter learned both 
more useful and more interesting. 

The amount of time that can be saved by skilfully cor- 
relating language, spelling and arithmetic with nature 
Savins- time study, domestic science and agricul- 

through correla- ture is an important factor in making 
*^°" use of the modern curriculum. Time 

must be saved somewhere if we are to take advantage 
of many new things now available for the education of 
our children; and it can be saved in this way, not only 
without loss, but with positive gain. If the skilful nature- 
study teacher makes a part of the lesson a written or oral 
description of what the child sees or does in the lesson, 
and at the same time gives attention to the form of ex- 
pression, there will be little need for a formal language 
lesson on this day. Two birds have been killed with the 
one stone ; the description helped in the nature lesson and 
it was also in the truest sense a language lesson, since 
it was based on real experience. Similarly, language can 
be taught in connection with geography, history, or any 
other subject, providing the teacher does not become care- 
less and neglect the matter of expression while teaching 
the facts involved in the lesson. Likewise most of the 
spelling classes could well be dispensed with, and not 
a few of the arithmetic lessons combined with the prac- 
tical work of agriculture, manual training and domestic 
science. And this would all result in a saving of time 
for both teacher and pupil. 

This method also greatly increases the efficiency of the 
pupil by making his knowledge more practical and usable. 



CORRELATION 85 

It is so easy to learn a set of facts divorced from any 
immediate need for them, and then when the need arises, 
Correlation leads not know how to apply the facts. In 
to efficiency proof of this, how many children 

there are who can work the hard problems of the arith- 
metic text, but can not solve the practical problems of 
the household accounts or compute the value of the farm 
crops ! The arithmetic they learned lacked correlation 
with actual affairs. There are many who can spell well 
from the spelling-book, but who strew misspelled words 
thickly over their written pages; their spelling failed of 
correlation with the practical needs of spelling. There 
are many who can glibly recite the rules for grammar 
and punctuation, but who violate them freely in actual 
usage ; they need to learn the rules, not as so much sepa- 
rate information, but in connection with the necessity 
for putting them into practise in every-day speech and 
writing. 

It is manifestly impossible in the space available to 
outline any complete plan of correlation. A few sugges- 
tions taken from the work of successful rural teachers 
will, however, show some of the practical applications 
of correlation that can be made in the rural school : 

The nature-study lesson was on birds, and pictures in 
natural colors of several birds native to the region, such 

Correlation with ^^ *^^^ bluebird, the robin, the barn 
basis of nature swallow and the woodpecker, were 

^*"^ brought before the class and studied 

and discussed. An observation lesson was then assigned, 
each child seeking to discover one or more of the birds 
described, and to study its appearance, flight, habits, and, 
if possible, nesting place. Besides affording excellent 
training in observation this supplied the basis for both; 



86 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

oral and written language lessons of the most interesting 
kind. 

The next thing taken up was the range or area of 
country each family of birds appropriates for its home. 
The bluebird was found to range over the whole United 
States west as far as Colorado, and to winter in the 
southern part of North America; it was discovered 
that the robin inhabits all the United States except 
the gulf states, and so on. This phase of the 
study at once brought in the necessity for geography, 
and the map came into use to find where the birds live. 
The climate naturally required discussion to determine 
why the barn swallow is not found in the South Atlantic 
states, nor the bluebird in the western states. The study 
of the food of the birds showed that sixty per cent, of 
tTie bluebird's diet is made up of grasshoppers, beetles, 
caterpillars and the like, and that thirty-two per cent, is 
vegetable food, chiefly wild berries ; that the robin's food 
is about half worms and insects, many of which are 
harmful; that the barn swallow's tireless darting flight 
is a relentless war on winged insects, more than one- 
third of which are flies ; and that the woodpecker lives 
chiefly on a diet of harmful orchard insects. 

So seemingly simple a series of nature-study lessons 
as these, touched a marvelously wide range of interests 
Points of contact ^^^h in and out of school. The birds 
reached through themselves were worth studying as a 
nature study p^^.^ q£ ^-^^ ^^^^^ world of nature, but 

their study at once led into other fields, and language, 
both oral and written, geography, agriculture and draw- 
ing were all naturally reached from this starting-point. 
For several days the children vied with one another in 
giving interesting descriptions and narrations based on 



CORRELATION 87 

their observations or study. Geographical locations, 
distances and directions were learned. Climatic condi- 
tions in different parts of the country were noticed, and 
the insect life and vegetation of various regions investi- 
gated. The relation to crops was made clear, and the 
pupils were taught to protect the birds instead of destroy- 
ing them. 

A further study of birds revealed the astonishing fact 
that the stomachs of flickers have been found to contain 

, . , at one time from three thousand to 
A lesson on birds ,- , , , , , 

five thousand ants ; that one cuckoo s 

stomach has been the receptacle for two hundred and fifty 
American tent caterpillars, and another's stomach for 
two hundred and seventeen fall webworms ; that one day's 
feeding of a nest of four young chipping sparrows dis- 
posed of two hundred and thirty-eight insects, nearly all 
of which were harmful. Where accurate or approximate 
figures such as these are available, there is no end of ma- 
terial for practical arithmetic as related to agriculture, 
thus naturally correlating number work with nature study, 
while showing the economic value of birds. 

Another teacher of seventh or eighth grade boys was 
discussing with them in the agriculture class the best type 
Correlation with °^ corn-cribs for the farm. Each boy 
agriculture as a was asked to make careful measure- 
ments of the home cribs, and also to 
bring drawings of them. The drawings were compared 
and discussed, and the faulty constructions criticized. 
Growing out of this, naturally arose the question of the 
capacity of the different cribs, and some very valuable 
lessons in farm arithmetic followed. Before this work 
ended every boy in the class knew the shortest and most 
practical methods of computing the capacity of com- 



88 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

cribs and could easily and quickly measure any crit) 
and tell how many bushels it contained. One farmer 
was about to build a new crib. He became interested in 
the work being done by the boys, and came over to the 
school to seek suggestions and advice, and finally de- 
cided to put up a crib of the new and approved type. 
The class, under the direction of the teacher, made the 
estimate of lumber for his crib, figured the cost, and told 
him just how many bushels it would hold. When the 
crib was under construction, the class made several 
visits of inspection to study the details. Three things 
were accomplished : the boys learned how to build corn- 
cribs ; they mastered more really valuable arithmetic than 
is sometimes learned in a whole term ; and they gained 
a strong friend for the school by being able to offer prac- 
tical help to the farmer. 

With the many concrete problems necessarily arising 
in connection with the practical work in agriculture, in 
Agriculture and manual training and in home econom- 
arithmetic ics, there is small use for systema- 

tically plodding through all the problems and the ordinary 
text-book in arithmetic. Most texts in arithmetic are con- 
structed with other occupations than farming in mind, 
and the problems have little relation to matters that the 
pupils know about or will ever have to meet. But even if 
we had a practical farm arithmetic, with the problems 
based on the computations relating to crops, stock, barns, 
ditches, fences and the like, it would still be better to 
make the greater part of the work grow immediately out 
of the concrete activities being carried on by the pupils 
themselves in the home and the school. 

In a class in home economics in a consolidated school 
the matter of artistic designs in wall-paper was under 



CORRELATION 89 

discussion. It was discovered that nearly every girl in 
the class came from a home where papering was soon to 
Correlation with a ^e done. Here, then, was the oppor- 
basis of home eco- tunity to correlate the work m home 
"°"^^^^ economics, art and arithmetic. De- 

signs for the paper of different rooms, such as bedrooms, 
living-rooms and parlors, were made as a part of the 
study in drawing and art, and sent to a near-by dealer, 
who supplied samples as nearly like the designs as pos- 
sible, to be studied at the school. Rooms were measured, 
the required amount of paper was computed, and the 
cost of papering each different room was found. The 
class worked at the problems involved with great inter- 
est, and soon found themselves able, not only to de- 
termine the types of paper best suited for various rooms, 
but also to find the cost accurately and quickly. This 
line of study naturally led to the question of paints and 
varnishes, and much useful information was gathered 
concerning the composition and value of different brands. 
Color schemes for individual rooms were worked out, 
and suitable carpets, rugs and curtains decided on. In 
each case materials and cost were taken into account, the 
girls learning many new facts concerning textiles and 
coloring stuffs, and developing ability in household arith- 
metic. 

One county in Indiana has for several years used no 
regular text-book in geography below the seventh grade. 
Geography and Yet under the direction of a wise su- 

correlation perintendent, this subject has been 

taught with unusual success. The children have been 
systematically set at work to discover the geographical 
data of their vicinities. Fields, forests, rivers, hills and 
ravines have been explored. Springs have been investi- 



90 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

gated, marshes surveyed, and clay beds and stone-quar- 
ries located and examined. The nature of the soil has 
been determined and the topography of the county 
studied. The different agricultural products have been 
analyzed and a comparison made v^ith the output of the 
factories. All the various sources of wealth have been 
considered, and a list made of the leading industries. A 
census of the people of the county has been undertaken 
by nationalities and occupations. In short, the study of 
geography has been made so immediate and concrete that 
it has become a source of inspiration and delight in the 
schools. And w^hen the text-books are taken up for the 
study of other regions and peoples, the descriptions pos- 
sess a reality and interest v^^hich, without the practical 
correlation of geography with life, they could never have 
had. The entire subject has taken on a new meaning be- 
cause it is connected with life and experience. Out of 
this new geography also have come scores of themes for 
lessons in language and composition, and countless prob- 
lems in concrete arithmetic, besides many fruitful topics 
for the study of local history and civics. 

Teachers who have adopted a practical sane system 
of correlation for the work of their schools have every- 
where remarked on the vitality and enthusiasm that have 
followed in the school. Especially has it relieved the 
deadness and drudgery of language study. Says the Hon- 
orable A. B. Martin, of the United States Department of 
Agriculture : "Some of the best essays I have ever read 
and some of the best speeches I have ever heard have 
been by the corn-club boys on the subject: 'How I grew 
my acre of corn.' " An Arkansas corn-club boy wrote 
an essay that the professors in the state agricultural col- 
lege pronounced one of the best papers on corn produc- 



CORRELATION 91 

tion they had ever seen. This paper, written by a school- 
boy, was printed by thousands and distributed as a guide 
to corn growing. The great trouble in most composi- 
tion work is not lack of knowledge of language forms, but 
poverty of ideas to express, and the absence of motives 
prompting expression. 

It must be understood, however, that a helpful corre- 
lation of school and home work such as we have de- 
Correlation re- scribed can be accomplished only by 
quires expert the teacher who possesses a wide 
teaching range of practical knowledge, and un- 
tiring zeal and industry. The teacher must have mas- 
tered the whole field of study covered by the school cur- 
riculum, and have a broad background of information be- 
sides. He must also know the industries and activities 
of the farm, and the special interests and needs of his 
particular community. He must be at home in the great 
out-of-doors, and not a mere master of text-books ; and 
he must be willing to devote time, thought and energy 
to the upbuilding of his work. Such a teacher will find 
rare satisfaction and compensation in the opportunities 
for larger helpfulness offered through the rational corre- 
lation of school studies. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. Departmental teaching such as is now the rule in the 
high school is being extended into the upper grades of the 
town school. Will not the multiplication of subjects soon 
make this necessary in the rural schools as well ? Is there 
any possibility of bringing such an arrangement about 
except by means of consolidated schools ? 

2. How will the actual basis for correlation in the 



92 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

curriculum vary in different parts of the country? (Oc- 
cupation, home interests, etc.) 

3. Have you ever known a boy who lacked interest 
in his home work suddenly to become enthusiastic in it 
when given some personal share in the returns? How 
may this principle be applied in the work of the school ? 

4. The term "learned ignoramus" was recently used 
in describing a certain person who had received much 
schooling, but lacked practical ability. How is the situa- 
tion involved in this case related to this chapter? 

5. Is there danger in seeking to correlate the different 
studies that some important subjects will be neglected? 
How can such danger be avoided ? 

6. Try working out a plan for a week's lessons, using 
nature study as a basis. Using agriculture as a basis. 
Using domestic science as a basis. Using manual train- 
ing as a basis. Which subject has the largest number of 
points of contact with other studies ? 

7. Consider your own school program and determine 
whether you could reduce the number of daily recitations 
by means of better correlation. What subjects will be the 
first to drop out? 

8. Similarly consider the probable increase in the in- 
terest and value of the school work that would follow 
effective correlation. 



CHAPTER VI 

VOCATIONAL TRAINING 

Rural children have almost everywhere been quitting 
school as soon as compulsory education laws would per- 
mit, and in thousands of cases have dropped out in de- 
fiance of the law. Educators and public-spirited people 
are gravely concerned over this exodus, as they may well 
be. But is it surprising that the children should drop out ? 
What with inexperienced teaching and poor equipment, 
the conditions in the rural school have not been inspiring 
at best; but added to this, the curriculum has been at 
fault; the studies have been such that the pupils have 
failed to see any close relation between the lessons studied 
in their books and what life required of them outside of 
school. Reared in the freedom of the country, they have 
felt the call of the open, but they have been wholly tied 
down in their school work within the four walls of a dingy 
and uninviting building. Interested in growing things, 
in crops and cattle and horses, they have been given a 
mental pabulum of conjugations and declensions, of dates 
and definitions, of rules and classifications. Feeling the 
pressure of real problems and duties resting on them, they 
have been put off with empty drill in mental gymnastics, 
in the dim hope that in some way this process might help 
them to meet their responsibilities. Small wonder that 
they have rebelled against the school and sought relief 

93 



94 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

from such irksome tasks in the real affairs of every-day 
life. 

The attitude resulting in the desertion of the rural 
school before completing its course can never be changed 
Remedy lies in hy lecturing to the children on the ad- 

vitalizing school vantages of an education. The remedy 
is deeper than this ; it lies in making the school work an 
actual part of the pupils' lives, and its lessons so valuable 
that they can not afford to miss them. In other words, 
the rural school should be made into a vocational school, 
and thus related immediately to the activities of the farm. 
This does not mean that nothing but agriculture and the 
industrial arts shall be taught in the rural school ; but 
rather that these things shall afford the point of contact 
between the school work and the home life and interests 
of the pupils, and shall shape the mode of approach to 
all other subjects of study. 

This close relation between the study interests and the 
home interests is especially necessary in the rural school. 
Difference in atti- ^or the children of the farm begin 
tude of rural and work at a relatively early age, and 
city child have come to realize its value and feel 

its responsibilities long before the city child thinks of 
engaging in any occupation outside of school hours. The 
result is that the rural child develops a practical turn of 
mind, and has a tendency to look on education if its prac- 
• tical trend is not evident with an impatience that is not 
felt by his urban cousin. The city child is not engaged 
on anything in particular outside the school, and hence 
has no definite measure of the immediate interest and 
value of his education; the country child is doing real 
things, and confronting actual problems, and hence has a 
constant tendency to compare the worth of the time spent 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING 95 

in school with the time spent outside of school. Without 
being wholly conscious of it himself, he demands prac- 
tical results from his education. 

The movement for vocational education in this country 
is now in full swing. Six states — Massachusetts, New 
Growth of voca- York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Wis- 
tional education consin and Indiana — now have more 
or less complete systems of vocational instruction. The 
newer education which they are so successfully intro- 
ducing is not meant to replace the old, but to supplement 
it, by giving training for a specific employment in addi- 
tion to the regular school studies. Elementary instruc- 
tion in agriculture is now required in the schools of nearly 
half the states, and the movement is extending with every 
session of the legislatures. It is safe to conclude that the 
next few years will see vocational training a part of the 
regular education of a very large proportion of all our 
industrial workers. 

The rural school has an exceptional responsibility in 
carrying out its share of this new problem. Until recent 
Responsibility of years agricultural production has been 
rural school able to keep pace with the increased 

food demands of our growing cities. As the hungry 
mouths multiplied in number, new areas were put under 
the plow, and more corn and wheat raised. Modern ma- 
chines made it easy to cultivate the added acres, which 
the government supplied ; so there was no reason to hus- 
band the resources of the soil. It was natural that much 
waste should occur under such a system ; the only thought 
was immediate returns, and these were not always intelli- 
gently sought. But with much of the most fertile land 
greatly exhausted by improper methods of cultivation, 
and with the free public lands all gone, conditions have 



96 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

greatly changed. The value of land has constantly 
mounted, and the price of produce has steadily risen. 
The old wasteful methods will no longer do. An im- 
portant part of the conservation of our resources is the 
education of the boys of the farms for the great indus- 
try on which they are to engage. They must be trained 
for their vocation, and not left to learn by costly mis- 
takes what they may easily be taught by simple instruc- 
tion in the course of their education. The rural schools 
must prepare for the vocation of agriculture. 

It is argued by many that the rural schools are not 
equal to this additional burden. It is said that the 
Rural school equal teachers are not prepared to teach 
to the task these subjects, nor are the schools 

equipped for teaching them. This is all too true of a 
large proportion of the rural schools of the present ; but 
it is not true of them all, and the conditions are rapidly 
changing for the better. Thousands of teachers are 
studying the new subjects in summer schools, or taking 
time off to master them; and other thousands about to 
enter on teaching are now having an opportunity to pre- 
pare in the vocational subjects as a part of their own 
education. Many rural schools are equipping for the 
teaching of the newer branches and others stand ready 
to act whenever conditions are ripe for the introduction 
of the vocational lines of work. The question is no longer 
whether we shall introduce the vocational subjects into 
rural education, but how can it best be done. 

One point is clear with reference to the introduction 
of agriculture and allied subjects into the rural schools : 
Vocational studies these branches must be taught as prac- 
must be practical tical, applied subjects, and not as so 
many detached facts or so much class-room theory. The 




A manual training class and what it made. At the left is the teacher, 
next to him is the janitor. What this class made out of school 
hours could have been sold for one hundred dollars 




A high school class at work in an Agricultural Laborator}- 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING 97 

work in agriculture must involve real practise with the 
planting and growing of crops, the care and breeding of 
stock, and the understanding and handling of soil. The 
course must not be merely a text-book course, but must 
make the text-book a means of studying and interpreting 
plants and animals under actual farm conditions. Simi- 
larly, work in manual training must not deal with abstrac- 
tions, nor must the shop exercises bear chiefly on lines 
of construction foreign to the farm and its surroundings. 

(Skill with tools can be obtained from work on articles 
required on the farm, as well as from the making of 
• bric-a-brac. The course in domestic science must keep 
in mind the farmhouse and rural conditions, and adapt 
its work to meet these needs. For only in such ways 
can the new branches from which so much is expected 
toward revitalizing the rural schools accomplish what is 
demanded of them. Agriculture, manual training and do- 
mestic science are not a panacea for the ills of rural edu- 
cation. There is no magic in any one of these branches 
except as it is related directly to the life and needs of 
the pupils. Agriculture taught from a text-book in the 
hands of a teacher unacquainted with living plants and 
animals might easily become as dead and uninteresting 
as a list of conjugations or a column of historical dates. 
Domestic science presented as a set of rules and ab- 
stract principles is not superior to scientific classifications 
or linguistic inflections as a subject of study. It finds its 
true value only when immediately related to the ex- 
perience and problems of the learner. 

Some have considered practical agriculture an impos- 
sible subject in rural schools because of lack of ground 
Rural school limi- ^^^ ^^^ planting and raising of crops 
tations and absence of facilities for the study- 



98 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ing of farm animals. In addition, the school runs not 
more than eight or nine months a year, and leaves the 
school agricultural projects without care at the very 
time when attention is most needed and when observation 
would be most instructive. 

There is much force in this argument, and the difficul- 
ties of conducting demonstration and experimental work 
at the school are not exaggerated. Yet this does not 
mean that the whole project must fall through. For 
there are different ways of arriving at the same re- 
sults. 

In the first place, some phases of instruction can be 
easily and effectively carried on in the school itself, even 
Possibilities of '^^ the one-room district school with 

one-room school jts meager equipment. The selection 
and care of seed-corn, and the methods of testing it, re- 
quire very little apparatus, almost no expense, and prac- 
tically no additional room. Similarly the testing of clover 
and timothy seed for freedom from noxious weeds, the 
method of treating seed oats to prevent rust, etc., can 
easily be accomplished. Soils can be examined and com- 
pared and tested and their suitability to different crops 
determined. With the cooperation of the farmers of the 
community and experts from the agricultural schools, 
special stock-and-grain-judging contests can be held. All 
these things and many others which lie at the very founda- 
tion of successful farming, require not special laboratories 
and equipment, but only knowledge, determination and 
willingness to work on the part of the teacher. They are 
wholly within the reach of the humblest district school, 
and need be hardly less effective and thorough there than 
in the larger school. 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING 99 

The range of agricultural instruction possible to the 
rural school is not limited, however, to the resources of 
the school premises. The adjoining farms, fields and 
flocks vastly extend the scope of the school laboratory. 
The seed-corn being planted on a neighboring field ; the 
stand of corn on the farms along the road; the history 
of the rotation of crops in the neighborhood; the rust 
on Farmer Smith's oats and the smut on Farmer Brown's 
corn; the farm animals in adjacent pastures or barn- 
yards — these are all as easily available for study as if they 
were a part of the equipment of the school, and have the 
advantage of being entirely real and concrete problems. 

Once the neighborhood becomes interested in the 
school's work in agriculture, there is no end to the as- 
Community sistance that will be willingly and 
cooperation gladly rendered by the patrons. Va- 
rious rural schools in Minnesota have found it possible to 
install Babcock milk-testers, the children bringing samples 
of milk from the farm for the purpose of the test, and 
taking the results of the test home as measures of the 
different cows of the herd. In another community each 
of several families gladly contributed a sitting hen for 
experimental study of chicken-raising at the school. The 
hens were set in coops made in the manual-training shop 
of the school according to models supplied by the state 
agricultural college. When the chicks were hatched the 
entire school day by day studied their growth. Each 
brood was fed a different ration prescribed by agricul- 
tural experts for a test of feeding. Other details of care 
and management were varied, and a comparison of results 
was made. The outcome of these experiments was the 
doubling of the poultry industry in the community, and 



100 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

the application of methods that greatly increased the 
profits. Better still, the children were scientifically in- 
structed in a paying industry, their interest in both the 
school and the farm was strengthened, and the school and 
the home were more closely related. 

One of the most promising fields for the development 
of rural vocational training is what is coming to be known 
"Home project" ^s home project study. The aim is to 
work interest the pupil in home industrial 

work, for which, when satisfactorily completed, school 
credit is given. There are two distinct plans in opera- 
tion, the difference being chiefly with reference (i) to 
the character of the home work for which school credit 
is given, and (2) the relation of the school to the direc- 
tion or oversight of the work carried on at home. 

Under the first plan, which originated in Massachu- 
setts and has now been widely adopted by individual 
schools throughout the country, each pupil, with the ad- 
vice of his teacher, selects some definite piece of work 
to be done at home, in part under the direction and super- 
vision of the school. The work selected must be of such 
character that it can be carried through from beginning 
to completion by the pupil, who is required to pursue 
supplementary reading and study on his home project as 
a part of the school work. The teacher or a special su- 
pervisor occasionally visits the home, inspects the pupil's 
work, and gives necessary suggestions or directions. The 
consent of the parents for the pupil to take up the pro- 
ject must be obtained, and their hearty cooperation as- 
sured. In Massachusetts the work on the project, to- 
gether with the reading and study necessary to carry it 
out, requires about one-half of the pupil's time. 

Among the home projects being successfully under- 




Judging poultry at a Rural School 




Coop and brooder made by boys of the Manua' Training Department 
of a Consolidated School 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING loi 

taken by either boys or girls are the following : The rais- 
ing and care of a pen of poultry ; planting and cultivating 
Types of home ^ section of a vegetable garden ; car- 

projects ing for and picking the fruit from a 

part of an orchard ; setting out and cultivating a patch of 
berries; preparing the ground for, planting, cultivating 
and harvesting a specified crop of potatoes or corn ; caring 
for one or two cows, including the feeding of a specified 
ration, cleaning, milking and testing the milk ; the feeding 
of a pen of pigs ; the building of a chicken house, porch or 
sidewalk; the canning of a crop of tomatoes, berries, or 
fruit; the doing of a specific phase of household work, 
such as setting the table, serving the meals, making beds, 
cleaning and dusting ; planning, cutting and making gar- 
ments, etc. 

The coordination of school and home work has 
proved effective wherever it has been fairly tried. True, 

. , it entails additional work on the 
Success attained , , , • i i i ^i 

teacher, particularly where there are 

no special supervisors to have general oversight of 
the home work; for it requires that the teacher 
shall occasionally visit the home for the inspection 
of the pupil's work. The advantages arising from 
the better spirit of cooperation and study in the school, 
and from the loyal support of the school by the homes, 
however, far outweigh the added requirements placed 
on the teacher. Work of this nature can be instituted in 
almost any rural school in the United States, providing 
the teacher is fully prepared for his part in the project, 
and enters into the spirit of the work with enthusiasm and 
tact. It need hardly be said that such a plan would be 
worse than a failure where the teacher lacks the knowl- 
edge, interest or tact requisite for so delicate an under- 



102 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

taking as to supervise work done by the child at his 
home, and credit it as a part of his school requirement. 

The second plan differs from the first in not requir- 
ing oversight of the home work by the school, in not 
Home projects demanding reading and study along 

without super- the line of home work being carried 

^^^^°" out, and in allowing a perfectly free 

range of choice of the home work to be done. The aim 
under this plan is to encourage the pupil to help in the 
regular work, doing his part faithfully and well. There 
is no direct attempt to make the work educative, except 
as all work well performed is educative, or as the child 
may receive instruction from the parent. Hence no at- 
tempt is made to correlate the home work with the work 
of the school. The parents are given the responsibility 
of judging the quantity and quality of the work done, 
and must report their judgment to the teacher, who as- 
signs proper credit to the pupil toward completing his 
course in the school. 

This plan is in successful operation in many sections 

throughout the United States, but has been more fully 

_,, -, , developed and followed in the state 

1 he Uregon plan r ^ i 11 o 

of Oregon than elsewhere. State 

Superintendent L. R. Alderman says of the project: 
"The plan costs no money, will take but little school time, 
and can be put into operation in every part of the state 
at once. It will create a demand for expert instruction 
later on. It is to give school-credit for industrial work 
done at home. The mother and father are to be recog- 
nized as teachers, and the school-teacher put into the 
position of one who cares about the habits and tastes of 
the whole child. Then the teacher and the parents will 
have much in common." 



' - VOCATIONAL TRAINING 103 

' Among the home duties for which school credit is given 

to boys on the report of the parent are: Building the 

_ . , .- morning fires, feeding stock, milking, 

Rating the pupil - . , . . . 

cleanmg horses, carmg for poultry, 

providing fuel. Credit work for girls includes sweeping, 
dusting, washing dishes, serving or setting the table, 
bread or cake making, sewing and ironing. Other sub- 
jects may be added by the parents if the work is regularly 
done by the pupil. In rating the pupil for the term or 
year, the industrial work carried on in the home is usually 
counted the equivalent of one subject pursued by the pupil 
in school, and credit is given on this basis. 

Perhaps the most important factor recently introduced 
into rural vocational education is the agricultural club 
The "agricultural movement, which is becoming more 
club" movement closely affiliated with the work of the 
rural schools every year. It is safe to say that club work 
will become a definite part of the school program in 
thousands of rural schools within the next few years. 
The growth of agricultural clubs throughout the United 
States has been more rapid during the last year than at 
any former time, and the promise for the future is even 
more encouraging. 

The first agricultural clubs were those established some 
sixteen years ago in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa and 
other middle western states. These were not definitely 
connected with the schools, and existed as district, county 
or state clubs, usually organized under the auspices of a 
state agricultural college. The national club organization 
began in 1907 in Mississippi, under W. H. Smith, now 
state supervisor of rural schools of that state. The first 
clubs organized were corn clubs for boys ten to eighteen 
years of age. They enrolled one hundred and sixty-two 



104 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

members the first year. This number had grown to 
one hundred thousand boys in corn clubs in the southern 
states in 1912. Girls' garden and canning clubs were 
first organized in 1910 in South Carolina and Virginia. 
There were three hundred and twenty-five girls enrolled 
the first year, the number increasing to thirty thousand 
in 19 12. In addition to the corn and garden clubs in the 
South, cotton clubs, potato clubs, poultry clubs, etc., have 
also been established and are rapidly growing. 

The United States Department of Agriculture has now 
definitely taken up boys' and girls' club work as one of 
Department of ag- its activities, and almost a million dol- 
riculture and clubs lars a year is being spent to promote 
agricultural education through this agency. Club work, 
so successful in the South, has been extended into the 
northern states. Sixteen states are now organized for 
national club work in cooperation with the Office of 
Farm Management of the Department of Agriculture. 
The work of the club is usually initiated through the 
schools, and is being made a definite part of the school 
program in many places. Special instructions are fur- 
nished all members in accordance with the nature of the 
work, lectures are given under the auspices of the club by 
agricultural experts, contests are held and prizes awarded. 

The national club organization under the direction of 
O. H. Benson, specialist in charge, is at present affiliating 
with it the various state and local clubs, and the movement 
will be extended until it has embraced every state. There 
are already some sixty specialists and agents now giving 
all or the greater portion of their time to this work. The 
cooperation of rural schools is everywhere being sought 
and encouraged, and valuable assistance rendered to make 
the work a success as a part of rural education. 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING 



105 



Boys and girls in all parts of the country have re- 
sponded enthusiastically to the club idea, and have shown 
Success of the marvelous results from their experi- 

olub movement ments and work. In states where the 

average yield of corn on the farm is from twenty to forty 
bushels the corn clubs have succeeded in producing from 
seventy-five to over two hundred bushels from an acre. 
Garden clubs, chicken clubs, canning clubs, cotton clubs 
and various other kinds of clubs have shown the same 
enterprise and ability to produce results through the use 
of the better methods learned in connection with the club 
work. 

The following table shows the list of prize winners in 
the corn club of the northern and western states for 1912, 
with the results obtained from one 
acre of ground. Each of the boys was 
given a free trip to Washington as a prize, the expenses 
being paid by various interested individuals, bankers' as- 
sociations, chambers of commerce, congressmen, senators 
and others : 



Club prize winners 



State 



Name 



Address 



Yield 
Bushels 



Cost Per 
Bushel 



Maryland 

Kentucky 

Iowa 

West Virginia. 
Massachusetts 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Illinois 



Leroy Nichols .. 
Lester Bryant .. 

Earl Zeller 

Ethan Allen 

Ernest Russell . 
Hosea Cornwall. 
Herman Rucker 
Ivan Houser.. .. 
Leon Kelley.. .. 
Wm. Southward 

Leo Miller 

Robert Reeder.. 

Ivan Goble 

Glen H. Gordon 
Robert Michael. 
Bert Waggoner. 
John S. Lane...., 
Ralph Wooters. 
Wilson Francis. 
Wilbur Corbin,. 
James P. Brown 



Highland 

Rockfield 

Cooper 

Morgantown. 
South Hadley 

Newman 

Decatur , 

Farmer City. 
Monticello..., 
Kinmundy.... 
Springfield,.., 

Mendota 

Charleston.. ., 

Urbana 

Assumption.., 

Gays 

Lacon , 

Moweaqua... . 

McNabb 

Wheeler 

Raymond 



150. CO 

148.55 
141.45 
140.20 
68.90 
150.45 
145-4^ 
122.60 
119.25 
117.75 
112.48 
III. 50 
108.59 
107.50 
106. II 
105.80 
100.40 
96.97 
94.50 
82.00 
59.00 



• 1333 
.1275 
.0975 
.2500 
.70C0 
.2940 

.1241 

.3000 



.2030 
.2265 

.1233 
.2689 
.2288 



io6 



BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 



The results for 1912 from the twelve southern states 
whose club work is under the direction of the Office of 
Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work is even better 
than the showing for the northern and western states : 



State 


Name 


Address 


Yield 
Bushels 


Cost Per 
Bushel 






Venters 


207 . 18 
206.60 
198.25 
196.27 
177. 
184. 
I67. 
159. 
156. 
134.20 
131-50 
129.29 
122.50 
117.67 
101.08 
83. 


$ .400 
.136 
.165 


Mississippi 


Carious Reddock 

Willie Atchison 

J. P. Deach 


Summerland 

McCalla 


Alabama 


Union Grove 


.lO'? 


Georgia 


Byron Bolton 

George E. West 

Frank Brockman 

Herbert McKibbon... 

Walter Bridges 

Lester Carrard 

lohnM. Cobb 

Richard Miller 

Ear le Davis 


.135 




Virginia 

Tennessee 


Amherst 


.225 


Culleoka 


Georgia 




• 3125 


Magnolia 




Louisiana 

Florida 


VowellsMill 

Baker 


.150 

.260 


Texas 


Grapelaad 

Mena 


.094 




Robert Connally 

Elston Coleman 

Herbert Allen 










North Carolina 


Pungo 


.142 



If all the farm boys now in rural schools could be in- 
terested in club and home project work, thus get- 
Possibilities in ag- ting the information and developing 
ricultural work the standards of farming required of 

members of the present clubs, the resultant increase in 
agricultural wealth in the nation would be almost beyond 
computation. The productivity of the soil would be far 
more than doubled and its natural strength would be 
much better conserved than under present conditions. 
And corresponding results are possible in the breeding and 
raising of stock, in the care and use of improved farm 
machinery, in the planning and erection of farm build- 
ings, including farmhouses, and in all that goes to make 
farming a profitable and worthy career. 

Let the rural school show its value by making an im- 
mediate and practical contribution to the welfare and 
Reflex influence success of its community, and there 
upon schools -will be no lack of financial or moral 




Lester Bryant, champion boy corn grower of Ken- 
tucky (1912). He grew 148 bushels and 5=; pounds 
of corn on his one acre 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING 107 

support on the part of its patrons. Rural schools that 
have earnestly and effectively taken up vocational train- 
ing have uniformly found ready cooperation and enthusi- 
astic appreciation. Schoolhouses have been improved or 
new ones erected, apparatus and other equipment have 
been supplied, and teachers' salaries have been increased 
as an evidence of awakened public interest in practical 
education. One Illinois rural district paid the teacher one 
hundred and ten dollars a month, nine hundred and ninety 
dollars a year, in 1913, for teaching a one-room school 
in which the vocational ideal dominates ; and many other 
districts in widely scattered regions are offering teachers 
who are capable of successfully introducing vocational 
subjects fully fifty per cent, more salary than the average 
for their vicinity. 

Nor does the vocational rural school lose its grip on 
its pupils, as is the case with the old type of school, and 
Influence upon allow them to drift into their life- 

P^pils work without preparation, and defi- 

cient in education. One of the most marked results of 
introducing vocational studies into the school has been 
larger enrollment and more regular attendance and 
greatly increased interest. The actual attendance in the 
modernized school is not infrequently doubled and oc- 
casionally trebled as compared with the former school. 
Not only do boys and girls who ordinarily would drop 
out of school at the third, fourth or fifth grade con- 
tinue to the end of the elementary course, but many of 
them are later found in the high school. Especially is 
this true where the high school also offers the vocational 
subjects. 

The experience of Superintendent Kate R. Logan, of 
Cherokee County, Iowa, forcefully demonstrates the 



io8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

power of a rural school of practical type to attract the 
young people of the farm. In traveling up and down 
Response to "spa- her county, Miss Logan noted many 
cial" schools boys and girls from fifteen to twenty 

years of age who were not in school, and who possessed 
but a meager education. These were the boys and girls 
who had dropped out from the district school, lost step 
educationally with those of their age, and now felt that 
the school had nothing for them. Miss Logan presented 
the case of these young people to her township school 
boards all over the county. As a result, a number of 
"special" schools were established, two of them in new 
buildings, to provide for this class of students. These 
schools open in the early autumn, and run until late 
spring. They employ the best teachers available. The 
course of study includes a review of the "three R's," agri- 
culture, manual training, domestic science, music, history, 
civics, literature, etc. The instruction is as concrete and 
inspiring as it can be made and is directly connected with 
the life of the pupils wherever possible. 

Needless to say, these "special" schools have been a 
success. They have been so great a success as almost to 
embarrass the school officials by the number who sought 
admission. For boys and girls have come from far and 
near to the schools, walking where possible, and supply- 
ing their own conveyances where the distance was great. 
The attendance has been regular; the work has been 
thorough and effective ; the spirit of loyalty and enthusi- 
asm in the school has been noteworthy. A number of 
young men from these "special" schools have now gone 
to agricultural colleges, and others of both sexes are 
planning to continue their education in high schools and 
colleges. 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING 109 

It is not likely that "special" schools, like those set up 
by Miss Logan will be widely adopted. They ought not 
All rural schools to be necessary. The work and oppor- 
to be vocational tunities they offer ought to be available 
in every rural school. Then the boys and girls will not 
drop out of school and require special schools in which to 
continue their education. The superintendent and people 
of Cherokee County are to be congratulated on their wis- 
dom and enterprise in providing for the neglected group 
of their youth who attend these special schools. But the 
next step is to make all the schools of their county "spe- 
cial" schools. And what is true of this county holds for 
all rural schools throughout the land; their work must 
be made so much a part of the life-equipment of the pu- 
pils that their appeal will be irresistible and the help they 
render invaluable — they must in a true and broad sense 
be made vocational. 

Whatever may be the method taken by the individual 
school, therefore, to work out its problem, we may con- 
Vocational move- ^^"de that our rural schools are about 
ment bound to to enter on a system of practical vo- 

succeed cational training for the farm boys 

and girls. No doubt there will be here and there a school, 
and perhaps here and there a whole county, where in- 
dustrial education will for a time be looked on as a fad, 
or as impossible in the smaller type of schools. No doubt 
vocational instruction will here and there be undertaken 
by teachers who are unprepared in either knowledge or 
sympathy for such work, and harm will be done to the 
movement and its progress delayed. Yet the movement is 
under way, and its success is but a question of time. The 
logic of the age demands that the rural schools shall be 
made vocational, the leadership is organizing to conduct 



no BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

a nation-wide campaign for such a result, and the patrons 
of the schools are everywhere loyal supporters of a vo- 
cational program once it is established. It is inevitable 
that our rural schools shall come to supply vocational 
training for the farm. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. It has been conceded for generations that training 
must be supplied by the state for those who are to enter 
professional pursuits. Should not the state likewise 
provide training for those who are to enter industrial 
pursuits? 

2. Suppose it would cost your state two million dollars 
a year more than it now pays for its schools to introduce 
vocational training into its rural schools ; also suppose as 
a result of such studies taught in the schools the yield of 
corn is increased by five bushels to the acre (which 
would be easily possible). How would the state come out 
financially on the investment? 

3. A great many rural school-teachers are graduates 
of town high schools and have never lived on a farm. 
The majority of them are girls. Can these teachers hope 
to make efficient instructors in the vocational subjects? 
If so, how must they prepare? 

4. Has your school made any preparation for teaching 
agriculture? If so, is the equipment of it adequate? If 
no provision has yet been made would you know just 
where to begin, and what to do in furthering the project? 

5. In some localities the farmers have little faith in the 
agriculture taught in the schools. Can you suggest meth- 
ods by which this indifference or antagonism can be over- 
come? 

6. What "home projects" for boys would you find it 
possible to introduce into your school work? For girls? 
Do you foresee that an untactful teacher might defeat all 



VOCATIONAL TRAINING iii 

such plans for work by failing to gain the cooperation of 
parents ? 

7. Do you think that school gardens could be made a 
success in connection with your school (i) for teaching 
nature study and agriculture ; (2) for purposes of decora- 
tion? 

8. What club work would be best adapted to your 
school conditions? Do you know how to proceed in or- 
ganizing and conducting a corn club? A canning club? 
If not, do you know where to write for instructions (ask 
your superintendent) ? 



PART III 

THE TEACHER AND THE 
RURAL SCHOOL 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 

The chief factor in increasing the efficiency of the rural 
school is, after all, the teacher. For on the teacher all the 
rest depends. No matter how perfect the curriculum, or 
how excellent the buildings and equipment, these things 
all go for naught except as they are employed by de- 
voted, inspiring and efficient teachers. More than this, 
the teacher is the most potent influence in awakening 
interest, shaping public sentiment and winning from the 
patrons of the rural schools the support necessary for the 
success of the new movement. The key to educational 
progress is largely in the teachers' hands. It is only as 
they comprehend the situation and lend their support to 
the new ideals that results will be possible. If the teachers 
are able to enter enthusiastically into the spirit of the 
new movement, if they are willing to prepare themselves 
fully for leadership in their communities ; and if they are 
ready to devote their best powers to the school and the 
community, then there can be no doubt of the successful 
outcome of the reforms now taking shape in the rural 
schools. 

But if, on the other hand, the teachers should fail to 
catch the spirit of the new movement, to comprehend its 
Power to hinder or significance, or to prepare themselves 
promote progress to be its exponents, then the movement 
could not succeed. For it is the teacher who comes into 

115 



ii6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

immediate contact with the patrons of the schools. 
County superintendents may be ever so efficient and have 
their plans ever so well laid, but it must finally be the 
rural teacher who carries these plans into execution. 
School boards may be ever so loyal to the educational 
interests of their districts and desirous of offering the 
children the best opportunities available, but they need 
the inspiration and guidance that alone can come from a 
thoroughly informed and highly enthusiastic leader such 
as the rural teacher must be under the new order. 

The teacher must be the concrete embodiment of the 
educational ideal. It is for him to reveal the new mean- 

The teacher must ^"^ °^ education— to show how educa- 
embody educa- tion can be made the instrument of 

tional ideal efficiency and success in the life and 

work of the farm. It lies with him to attract the rural 
boys and girls to the school and by his effective teaching 
hold them there until they complete the course it offers. 
The teacher must be the source of inspiration and enthusi- 
asm capable of leading the pupils to desire an education 
because they see its advantages. The rural teacher occu- 
pies a strategic position in the greatest educational move- 
ment of modern times, — the movement to bring the rural 
schools up to the degree of efficiency necessary if the 
life and standards of our rural communities are not to 
deteriorate. This is a great responsibility and at the same 
time a magnificent opportunity. 

The spirit which the rural teacher brings to his work 
becomes, therefore, an all-important matter. For the at- 
The spirit of the titude with which one confronts one's 
teacher task is the first measure of his suc- 

cess. Battles have often been won against great 
odds through an invincible spirit of loyalty and de- 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 117 

votion on the part of the soldiers; and battles have 
as often been lost because devotion and loyalty were 
lacking. Half-hear*-ed service always fails of its 
purpose, for it never calls forth the full powers of him 
who serves, nor the full response and appreciation of 
those who receive the service. The indifferent or spirit- 
less teacher would do well to remember Emerson's re- 
mark, that "Nothing great was ever achieved without 
enthusiasm." Nor is anything worthy ever accomplished 
without sincerity of purpose. A great work greatly per- 
formed reflects its greatness on the worker ; but it dwarfs 
him who slights it or uses it as a plaything. A spirit of 
cooperation begets its kind, but an attitude of selfishness 
or indifference is fatal to community of interests or 
efforts. The teacher must give what he expects to get 
back. He will find that the world is a great mirror which 
returns to him the image he brings to it. 

How, then, shall the rural teacher look on his work? 
Is it to him an opportunity or an imposition? Is the 
school simply a place where so many school-days of so 
many hours each can be traded for a ^iven number of pay 
checks? Or is it an opportunity for investing the best 
powers of his mind and heart in the lives and welfare of 
those with whom he works? The pay? — Ah, yes, the 
teacher must have his oay. Would that it were twice 
what it is ! But, having once arranged the matter of the 
pay, that need not again enter into his reckoning. The 
true teacher will feel his best powers placed under tribute 
by the need and the opportunity that confront him, and 
will not measure the service he renders, nor in any degree 
check it up in a balance against dollars and cents. 

One rural teacher was taught this lesson by a school 
director to whom he applied for a school. The board had 



ii8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

fixed tHe salary at the pitiful sum of thirty dollars a 
month for a term of three months. The teacher remon- 
A teacher with the strated at the meagerness of the sal- 
wrong attitude ary, but the director replied that, 
though he was sorry it was not more, yet this was the 
amount decided on by the board, and was therefore all he 
could offer. The teacher finally said, 'T will accept the 
school at thirty dollars a month, but I warn you now that 
I shall not teach so good a school for thirty dollars as I 
would for forty dollars a month." The farmer looked at 
him a moment in astonishment and then administered a 
well-merited rebuke: "Sir, you are lacking in the true 
spirit of the teacher; you could not have this school at 
any price !" 

Only as personal hand-to-hand work by sincere teach- 
ers is done in the rural communities will the new spirit in 
Results accom- education permeate the patronage of 

plished by a de- the rural schools and finally serve to 
voted teacher reconstruct their attitude toward the 

school. The influence that may be exerted by an en- 
thusiastic and capable rural teacher is illustrated in the 
case of one girl in a western state who entered a rural 
community in which the school spirit and standards were 
low, the building unsuitable and out of repair, and equip- 
ment almost wholly lacking. This teacher set resolutely 
at work to remedy these conditions. She gave herself 
completely to her work, and became in a true sense one of 
the community. Within three years she had revolution- 
ized educational affairs in this district, being responsible 
for the erection of a modern school building with the 
latest and most sanitary equipment, and with apparatus 
and supplies wholly adequate for the needs of the dis- 
trict. She had more than doubled the attendance of the 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 119 

school, had had her own pay largely increased, and had 
made the school the central feature both intellectually and 
socially in this community. What was accomplished by 
this one rural teacher can be accomplished by others if 
they but possess the right spirit and equipment for their 
work. Indeed just such work as this is being accom- 
plished by thousands of teachers in our rural schools. 

The rural school has long been looked on as the lowest 
and most unattractive teaching position in our whole 
Difficult problems school system. Here most of us had 
to be met to begin, young, inexperienced and 

relatively unprepared for our work. The school is usually 
small in numbers, the pupils are poorly classified, the 
building is diminutive and uninviting, and the equipment 
insufficient. The salary is inadequate, the school spirit 
at a low ebb, and all conditions are less inviting than in 
the town or city school. The rural school has frequently 
been viewed by men as a stepping-stone to better posi- 
tions, and by girls as a convenient opportunity to earn 
a little money against the expenses of approaching mar- 
riage. It has too often been considered as a place of mere 
drudgery, a position to be endured if it could not be 
escaped. 

Yet the very difficulty and hardness of the adverse con- 
ditions constitute a challenge to the heroic element in 
Meeting the dare choice natures. The obstacles act as a 
of hard conditions dare to the spirit of conquest inherent 
in youth. They call for sacrifice, yet offer the opportunity 
for the testing of one's powers and for the winning of 
hard-earned victories. Man at his best is not afraid of 
hardship, and does not look for an easy task. The spirit 
of conflict deeply rooted in human nature, and the impulse 
to try to the utmost all our powers, prompt us to measure 



120 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

our strength against difficulties that appear all but insu- 
perable. It is this spirit that explains the measure of suc- 
cess that has attended our rural schools even under such 
discouraging conditions. That the rural school has proved 
as efficient as it has, is a high testimony to the intelligence 
and resourcefulness of our young men and women who 
have begun their careers as rural school-teachers. 

Only the teacher who is willing to accept the dare of 
hard and trying work has any business in the rural school. 

Rural school no ^^ '^ "° P^^^^ ^°' *^^ ^^^^^'"^ ^^ ^^^ 
place for half- weak-hearted, or for one who is not 

hearted work willing to lose himself completely in 

his work ; for to him it will mean but time-serving and in- 
efficiency. One such teacher, entering on a two months' 
term, said at the close of the first day of school, "Only 
thirty-nine more days left !" And so he kept on checking 
the days off until the end of the term released him from 
his slavery. For no work followed in such a spirit as this 
can be other than slavery to the worker. Another, a girl 
just graduated from a high school and a resident of a 
town, when asked how she liked her country school, said : 
"Oh, if I can go out to my school each week on Monday 
morning just in time for school, have a chance to get 
back to town once or twice during the week, and always 
escape in time to be at home for supper on Friday night, 
I think I can stand it." 

There is no possibility of high-grade success with such 
an attitude as this toward one's work; for interest and 
J, 't f enthusiasm are lacking, and the 

whole-hearted choicest powers of both mind and 

service heart lag far below their best. The 

teacher of the rural school, even though reared in the 
town or city, must be able to identify himself fully with 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 121 

the life and interests of the rural community in which he 
works. He can not come into the country community as 
a foreigner, and do his best work. He must be fully 
naturalized to the conditions and the people in his sphere 
of work. Nor can this be any half-hearted or profes- 
sional identification of himself with the farming commu- 
nity. He must go the whole distance, and really come to 
take a deep and permanent interest in the people and their 
life. 

The career of a young man — ^David Hammond — teach- 
ing in a western rural school well illustrates this fine 
What enthusiasm spirit of service. David graduated 
can accomplish from a town high school where he had 

an opportunity to study a course in agriculture and learn 
manual training. He then attended a normal school for 
a year, studying especially the problems of rural educa- 
tion. He spent the next summer on a farm. The follow- 
ing September, at the age of nineteen, he became teacher 
of a rural school noted only for its meager attendance and 
lack of vitality. But here was David Hammond's oppor- 
tunity. He was not looking for an easy place ; he wanted 
to try what he could do. He became so completely one of 
the community that they laughingly said they had adopted 
him. At least they raised his salary, and the second year 
he was drawing sixty dollars a month. Better still, the 
school had undergone a marvelous change. The house 
was now in repair, equipment was plentiful, and a happy 
throng of children double in number those he found when 
he began the school were coming regularly. But other 
districts had heard of David Hammond's success ; such 
fame is sure to spread. David was offered ninety dollars 
a month in another school, an increase of one-half in his 
salary. David's old district could not afford to pay more 



122 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

than sixty. But David stayed. He said that there were 
still many things he wanted to do for that district before 
he left. And he is there carrying out his plans. Some 
may scoff at David's choice. But the world is on the 
lookout for men who are great enough to make such 
choices, and some day David Hammond will be wanted to 
fill a position of large responsibility to which the scoffer 
could never aspire. 

The teacher who has a tendency to feel that his time 
and powers are in some sense wasted or poorly employed 

The teacher who ^^^^^ expended on the backward 
feels above his and plainly clad children of the farms 

^ should either change his attitude or 

his occupation. For these children are not to be slighted 
or patronized. They are at least the equals of the chil- 
dren of the towns and cities when given an equal chance. 
And the true teacher will feel that here is the most fruit- 
ful ground in which to sow the seeds of helpfulness and 
influence. If the teacher is worthy to stand at the head of 
a school, this school, though small and poorly housed, 
will command the last measure of his energy and effort. 
It will call forth the finest of his powers, and receive his 
richest sympathy and helpfulness. 

This is to say that the teacher, and particularly the 
rural teacher of the present day, should be equipped with 
An example of ^ passion for helpfulness — an un- 

helpfulness quenchable impulse to service. Domi- 

nant in his life should be the spirit of sympathy which 
actuated the teacher in the following incident : Annola 
Wright was a teacher of music. She has since become a 
noted singer in a great city. While she was still a teacher 
in the school of a Michigan town she had developed a 
beautiful voice, and people loved to hear her sing. But 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 123 

they admired Miss Wright fully as much for herself as 
for her voice. For she was buoyantly happy in her work, 
and radiated cheer and helpfulness to all about her. Miss 
Wright's fame as a singer grew, and she was asked many 
times to sing at social gatherings and entertainments. 
These invitations became so frequent and her work as a 
teacher was so heavy that she was obliged to decline many 
requests to sing. But there was one place where she 
never failed to go and sing each week. This was the 
home of a boy who had been a pupil in the school, but 
was now crippled and helpless. His mother was a widow 
and washed to support her home. The boy could no 
longer go to school to hear Miss Wright sing, so she came 
and sang her most beautiful songs to him. One day the 
crippled boy sickened of a contagious disease, and the 
house was quarantined. Miss Wright came and stood 
outside the fence and sang to the sick boy as he smiled out 
of the window. She came each day until he died. Be- 
cause of the contagious disease there could be no funeral 
service. But on the day when they were to carry the 
body of the boy from the house, Miss Wright came again 
and standing by the gate, sang for his funeral the old 
songs the boy had loved. 

Soon after this Miss Wright resigned her position as 
teacher of music and went to the city to study. Success 
The reward of came to her, and her old friends in the 

helpfulness Michigan town desired to hear her 

sing again. They were proud of her success. They sent 
her an invitation to give a concert in the town. Seats 
were sold at city prices and the concert hall was crowded. 
When Miss Wright came before the audience to sing, 
the people wondered at a little pause before she began, 
and a strange note of emotion in her voice in the first 



124 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

song. They did not know that this was caused by seeing 
the mother of the crippled boy, who earned her Hving by 
washing, occupying one of the seats, that she might show 
her appreciation of Annola Wright's kindness to her boy. 

The teacher, especially the one who comes from the city 
high school, must not assume that because the patrons 
The teacher's atti- ^"^ pupils of his school are dressed 
tude toward his in working clothes they are therefore 
P®°P of a different order of beings from 

himself. He must not allow himself to think that because 
they work with their hands and have to do with the soil, 
their vocation is of a lower order than that of the city 
worker in store or office or shop. He must be able to 
sense the rugged and virile manhood and the strong 
womanhood to be found among the rural people and 
respond to it with the best that is within himself. 

Not to be able to approach the problems and oppor- 
tunities of the rural school in this spirit, far from pro- 
claiming any native superiority inherent in the disdainful 
teacher, only proves his own narrowness and provincial- 
ism. What he needs first of all is to broaden his own out- 
look on life, and to increase the range of his own knowl- 
edge and sympathies. He needs to look beyond the small 
circle of his few acquaintances or intimates, and become 
able to meet those in different walks of life, recognizing 
their true worth and acknowledging their contribution 
to the common welfare. He needs to cultivate in himself 
an appreciation of interests and values hitherto unknown 
to him. 

The true teacher will, then, enter fully and completely 
into his work in the rural school, and will withhold noth- 
ing of interest, enthusiasm or effort in his desire to be 
helpful to his community. If he is from the town or city. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 125 

he will earnestly seek to inform himself on the problems 

and activities of the rural community. He will, in 

sympathy and appreciation, at least, become a farmer, and 

will become able to think and feel as farmers do. He will 

understand the children of the farm, and will bring to 

them many things that will brighten and enrich their 

lives, while at the same time he leads their ambitions and 

inclinations to choose the farm as an occupation. Such 

a teacher will never hold himself aloof from or above his 

pupils and patrons, but will expand his own personality 

until it is large enough to include them all, with their 

interests and problems. And he will find this fully as 

much to his own advantage and growth as to theirs. 

The teacher of the rural school sometimes feels that 

because the school is small, and the pupils young and 

. , . backward in their studies, the work is 

A cure tor impa- ' 

tience with the therefore less worthy than in higher 

humdrum grades and larger schools. It is a 

tendency common to human nature to long for other en- 
vironment and conditions than those in which we work, 
and to think that if we could only occupy the position 
that some one else has, we should be much happier and 
more successful. Work becomes humdrum, and the sur- 
roundings commonplace, and we long for a change. 
While this attitude is natural enough, it is well to remem- 
ber that all labor becomes routine, and must do so before 
we can become proficient in it. It is only the teacher who 
can invest the common duties of the school-day with in- 
terest and newness who can escape the deadness of 
routine. While the lessons may be familiar and the sub- 
ject-matter old, the children are always new, the human 
element in our work is always changing. Each child is 
different from any other, and every one worthy the genius 



126 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

and devotion of a Pestalozzi in his teacher. We all need 
to learn the lesson that Sill teaches in his lines : 

"Forenoon, and afternoon, and night ; — Forenoon, 
And afternoon, and night ; Forenoon, and — what ? 
The empty song repeats itself. No more? 
Yea, that is life ; make this forenoon sublime, 
This afternoon a psalm, and this night a prayer, 
And time is conquered, and thy crown is won." 

Still further is it to be remembered that the elementary 
work of the grades is not the least important work of the 
Elementary grades school. It is often thought that the 
the most important high-school teacher is engaged in 
more dignified and significant teaching because it is more 
advanced. Such a view overlooks the fact that the most 
important years of the child's education are the earliest 
years. Before the child goes to school at all he has been 
learning faster than he ever learns afterward. The first 
years of his schooling are more important by far than the 
later years. If a child is compelled to have a poor teacher 
anywhere in the course of his schooling, far better that 
this should be in the higher grades or in the high school 
than in the first years. This is true not only because the 
first years set the standard and give the bent for the later 
years, but also because the teacher plays relatively a larger 
part in the learning of the child when he first goes to 
school than after he has fully learned to use books as a 
tool in his education. 

It is high time that all teachers, superintendents and 
school boards come to realize that the grades of the ele- 
Best ability re- mentary school require quite as good 

quired for children ability and as complete training as the 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 127 

high school, and that the pay should be fully as great. 
The failure to recognize this truth has come from the mis- 
taken notion that the difficult and important thing about 
teaching is the subject-matter to be taught. Because the 
subject-matter of the lower grades is simple, it has been 
assumed that the teaching must be as easy. But the sub- 
ject-matter is the easy part in any grade of teaching. Any 
one can learn his arithmetic, geometry or history. The 
really difficult factor in teaching is the child; and the 
younger child, who has not yet learned the art of master- 
ing books, and who still lacks the foundations on which to 
build in his study, is the hardest problem for the teacher 
to master. 

The rural teacher has need at the present time to be the 
most devoted and progressive of any class of American 

T^ . r , • teachers. This is true from the fact 

Demand for choice 

qualities in rural that the needs of the rural schools are 
teacher j^g^ j^^^ ^^^ most pressing and the 

opportunities the greatest of those in any class of schools. 
The rural school has been left stranded behind all others 
in recent educational progress. But the advance is begin- 
ning, and reconstruction is rapidly taking place. In this 
advance, the rural teacher must be able to take an im- 
portant part, — must be able, under the direction of county 
superintendents and other administrative officers, to as- 
sume leadership in carrying out lines of policy for the 
improvement of the rural schools. 

Only devoted and progressive teachers can measure up 
to the responsibilities now presenting themselves. Only 
the teacher who has fully entered into the spirit of prog- 
ress beginning to actuate our agricultural industries and 
the rural schools can be of any great service in the newer 
type of rural school. Indeed the unprogressive teacher, 



128 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

the teacher who is not able or willing to advance, or the 
teacher who has fallen into the rut of mechanical teach- 
ing, would be of far more use in a school of the old type 
than in the more efficient rural school of the present and 
the future. The rural teacher* must therefore be willing 
to grow; must be willing to come into the full spirit of 
progress and to master the knowledge required to lead in 
the new curriculum and new methods of to-day. He 
must be willing and able to cooperate with superintend- 
ents and other educators in formulating and carrying out 
a progressive program for the reorganization of rural 
education. 

The rural teacher must take teaching seriously. This 
does not mean that he must be long-faced and solemn. 
The teacher's view weighted down by a sense of responsi- 
of his vocation bility. The teacher should of all per- 

sons be possessed of a ready sense of humor, and be able 
to see the lighter side of things. But he should also be 
able to take serious things seriously, and know that it 
means something to be commissioned by society as the 
leader and director of children. He must comprehend the 
wide-spread social movement toward efficiency as the out- 
come of all true education. He must recognize that fail- 
ure on his part can but result in depriving childhood of its 
right to full preparation for the duties and opportunities 
that lie ahead. No thinking person will therefore enter 
on such responsibility lightly, or pursue the occupation 
of teaching frivolously. He will never feel, as one 
thoughtless teacher expressed his own attitude, that "it 
is a great joke to be teaching the kids." He will give 
himself unstintedly to his work, withholding nothing of 
time, personality or effort in the service of his school. 
He who can not do this has no moral right to take upon 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 129 

himself the obHgations of the teacher, — especially the 
rural teacher. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. Have you observed cases where one teacher failed 
and another succeeded in a school owing to a difference 
in the spirit brought to the work ? Is there any cure for 
the indifferent teacher, and if so, what ? 

2. Is a teacher justified in withholding something of 
his best effort if he feels that the salary is insufficient to 
compensate for the work demanded? Explain the para- 
dox, "He who does not earn more than he receives, re- 
ceives more than he earns." 

3. A pessimistic writer recently said, "Any person, no 
matter how much he professes to love his work, will leave 
this work if you offer him twenty per cent, higher salary 
somewhere else." Do you believe this? Is it not a per- 
son's duty to command the highest salary his powers will 
justify? 

4. Account for the fact that educational service is paid 
less than service in commercial lines. For example, the 
president of one of our largest universities receives ten 
thousand dollars a year ; the president of an insurance 
company receives twenty-five thousand dollars a year. 

5. Do you believe that Miss Wright, whose story is 
told in the chapter, received personal rewards in satisfac- 
tion and development equivalent to the sacrifice required ? 
Is there any danger of being miserly with one's powers 
as well as with one's money? 

6. Have you known persons whose qualities of char- 
acter seemed to be brought out through service? Is it 
necessary that the service be in some conspicuous position 
in order to produce such a result ? 

7. Have you known teachers who seemed to feel above 
the work they were doing ? Were they successful teach- 
ers? 

8. Which is the better position so far as investment of 



130 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

one's influence is concerned, the elementary school or the 
high school ? What is meant by the paradox that the best 
teacher is the one who renders himself unnecessary to his 
pupils ? 



CHAPTER VIII 

SCHOLASTIC PREPARATION 

We have seen how the spirit brought by the teacher to 
his work is the first proof of his fitness. But this spirit 
is a matter of growth and development. Attitude arises 
not by chance, but out of environment and training. The 
teacher can not create a certain spirit toward his work by 
mere compulsion of will or by determination. However 
good his intentions, he can not teach that which he does 
not himself know. He can not enter fully and sympa- 
thetically into the life and interests of those whose expe- 
riences are wholly different from his. He must have some 
point of contact with the people he serves, some common 
basis of thought, feeling and knowledge. The rural 
teacher must therefore be educated, so that he can lead 
and inspire ; he must be trained, so that he can teach ; he 
must be at heart one of his people, so that he can enter 
into their lives as a friend and leader. His spirit and 
attitude must be shaped to this end by his preparation and 
training. 

For it is only as the teacher has made concrete in his 
own life and experience the standpoints and methods he 
The teacher must fishes to impress on others^ that he 
embody the truth will find his instruction effective. The 
he teac es world is never either formed or re- 

formed by abstract truth or general theory. It requires 
the stimulus of actual lives ; for it is, after all, the lives of 

131 



132 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

leaders that we follow, and not their words. This truth 
has not always been recognized in teaching. Not infre- 
quently teachers have been employed who had not mas- 
tered for themselves what they were attempting to teach. 
And we have therefore had the spectacle of a teacher 
trying to transplant arithmetic, grammar or geography 
directly from the pages of the text-book into the minds 
of the pupils. It is needless to say this process is always 
a failure. The subject-matter taught must have first be- 
come an integral part of the knowledge of the teacher. 
One can not teach what does not come from within ; one 
can not pick matter up and hand it on to others without 
first partaking of it one's self. Knowledge, standpoints, 
ideals, and all other values must first be so thoroughly 
assimilated that they are a real part of us before we can 
impart them to others. 

The rural teacher must be well educated. For if the 
blind undertake to lead the blind shall not both fall into 
The blind attempt- ^^^ ^^^ch? The public demand does 
ing to lead the not, in all parts of the country, yet in- 

^^^^^ sist on adequate scholastic training for 

teachers. Even in some very rich and highly intelligent 
states, hardly the simplest rudiments of knowledge in 
the fundamental branches are required of rural teachers. 
Thousands of schools are yet taught by those who have 
had little or no schooling in advance of that given in the 
rural schools themselves. In a middle western state one 
girl who failed in the examinations for passing from the 
eighth grade into the high school of her home town, took 
the teachers' examination, obtained a certificate and be- 
came a teacher in the rural schools! In many parts of 
the South the conditions are as bad. Such a situation is 
a shame and a disgrace. Where standards of such low 



SCHOLASTIC PREPARATION 133 

grade are tolerated by the public, the teachers themselves 
ought out of self-respect to arise and demand adequate 
scholastic preparation as a condition of entrance to their 
professional ranks. Teachers must be willing to do this 
if they expect to stand high in public regard ; if they hope 
to increase their salaries ; if they wish to be laborers 
worthy of their hire. All efforts, therefore, such as are 
sometimes made by teachers to lower the scholastic re- 
quirements for certificates, or to avoid the necessity for 
professional growth and development as a condition to 
promotions or advancement in the grade of certificates, 
are not only hostile to public welfare, but inimical to the 
best interests of the teachers themselves. 

These are days of high prices — high cost of living, high 
priced land, and highly paid labor. The most expensive 
The cost of commodity of the present age, how- 

ignorance ever, is ignorance. Nor can the 

farmer, any more than those in any other vocation, afford 
to tolerate it. The rural teacher and the rural school are 
coming more and more to be two of the most valuable 
assets in any rural community. But the rural teacher 
must be able to fulfil his part of the contract ; he must be 
prepared for the greater educational demands recently 
being placed on him. 

Indeed, teachers are in these days being selected for the 
rural schools on a new and different basis from that 
New demands which has too often prevailed. The 

upon teachers time is now past for choosing a 

teacher because of his physical stature, or because he has 
a reputation for "cleaning out" some neighboring school. 
He is no longer favored because he happens to belong to 
a particular political party. And even the fact of his 
being a relative of ^n influential member of the school 



134 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

board is coming to lose its coercive power. The newer 
and more hopeful type of question is, What is your edu- 
cation? What has been your type of training? What do 
you know about agriculture and life on the farm ? What 
have you already accomplished? What can you do for 
this school and community? Are you really prepared to 
teach school, and do you knozv how, or are you only 
seeking a convenient place to earn a little money? 

Laws have been enacted in a number of states requir- 
ing a full high-school education and a certain amount of 
normal training before a teacher's certificate can be 
granted. This is well ; and the movement will spread as 
fast as the false economy of employing unprepared 
teachers is fully realized. But this is, after all, only an 
initial step. We must go farther, and also insist that the 
education received shall be of the type to fit for the 
special problems of the rural school. The rural teacher 
should have had practical training on the farm itself, and 
should, if possible, have had at least a part of his educa- 
tion in the rural school. For only in this way can he have 
a concrete and first-hand knowledge of the problems to 
be solved through his teaching. This is to say that the 
scholastic training of the rural teacher must include a 
knowledge of farm life and its problems as well as of 
books. A scholastic training in a city school, with no 
opportunity for acquaintance with rural people and con- 
ditions, is far from an adequate preparation for teaching 
a rural school. Not until we have well-equipped and 
highly efficient rural high schools, as well as elementary 
schools, shall we be able to offer the best type of fitting 
for the rural teacher. 

It is true that we have, especially among our older rural 
teachers, many who have not had the advantage of a high- 



SCHOLASTIC PREPARATION 135 

school education, and yet are doing excellent work. Some 
of these began when high schools were not so common as 
Old standards they are now, and when the certifi- 

not adequate cate requirements were less exacting 

than at present. Yet these teachers with limited training, 
who have so often felt the need of better preparation, will 
be the first to advise every young teacher to acquire a 
thorough education before entering on his work. And 
not a few of the more mature and successful teachers 
have found it worth while to drop out of teaching for a 
time in order to go to school and make up for the earlier 
lack of opportunity. 

Many teachers could learn a valuable lesson from the 
experience of John Ricketts, one of the best rural- 
school teachers of his state. In the spring of 1908, 
when at the end of the term John Ricketts closed 
his schoolhouse for the vacation, he had completed 
his thirty-third year of teaching in rural schools. 
He had had only the scanty training of an old- 
time district school supplemented by his own experi- 
ence and study. He was of the growing progressive type, 
and ranked as a successful teacher. But John Ricketts 
had caught the spirit of the times and felt that he owed 
his school and community greater efficiency than he 
possessed. The following September found him enrolled 
in one of the best normal schools of his state, broadening 
his grasp of the subjects he had been teaching so many 
years, and studying the new industrial subjects and prac- 
tical agriculture. He even took a course in sewing. After 
a year of study he returned to the school he had left. He 
was received with open arms and an increase of salary. 
He introduced agriculture, manual training, drawing and 
sewing into his school. He taught the old subjects with 



136 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

a new enthusiasm and efficiency. The following summer 

found him again in the normal school, spending his entire 

vacation in study. Again he returned to his rural school, 

this time with his efficiency and usefulness so increased 

that his services were in demand throughout the entire 

township. So John Ricketts went on. Each summer he 

spent in study and each year he taught better for this 

growth and knowledge. To-day he is receiving in salary 

almost double what he was receiving five years ago when 

he decided to strengthen his scholarship and broaden his 

knowledge. Half a dozen different school corporations 

are seeking to engage him for their schools. Both his 

responsibilities and his salary have been increased, and he 

is now supervisor of music, drawing and industrial work 

for all the schools of his township. 

John Ricketts' own view of the matter is as follows : 

"I taught for over thirty years before I was prepared to 

teach. I did not grow as a teacher 

A worthy example . . ... ,. 

and advance m position because I 

started on too narrow a basis of education and reached 
my limit soon after I had begun. I taught all I knew, 
and did the best I could, but I was unable to do really 
effective teaching, for I did not have the preparation. It 
is my intention to spend my summers at some good school 
where I can replenish my fund of knowledge and keep in- 
creasing my efficiency." 

The example set by John Ricketts thirty years after he 
began to teach should be followed by many teachers who 
Opportunities open are yet young in the work. It should 
to teachers be followed by still others who are 

just beginning. And this can be accomplished in many in- 
stances without the expense of leaving home to attend a 
distant school, Good high schools are available in every 



SCHOLASTIC PREPARATION 137 

county. Many of them are recently coming to offer nor- 
mal-training courses especially for rural teachers. Almost 
every county also has its summer training school for 
teachers. There is no longer any excuse on the part of 
the teacher for lack of education except want of ambition, 
or unwillingness to spend the time and money in prepara- 
tion. And either of these causes proclaims the candidate 
unworthy of the high office of teacher. 

No person should take on himself the responsibilities 
of a teacher in the rural schools without the equal of at 

, , . , , , J least a raod high-school education. 
A high-school edu- , . , , , . ,r 1 

cation the min- He owes this both to himself and to 

^'"""^ the schools. For one can not teach 

all one knows. One must have some background of 
knowledge and experience beyond that daily drawn 
on. Otherwise one's teaching will lack aim, balance 
and precision. It will be wanting in power and ef- 
fectiveness, for these come from the reserve force of 
the teacher. It will fail to arouse and inspire, for in- 
spiration and enthusiasm have their roots in the deeper 
levels of the mind, and not in the mere surface cur- 
rents. Nor can one himself fully profit from experi- 
ence, and grow under the stimulus of responsibility ex- 
cept as he has a reasonable foundation to build on. Thou- 
sands of teachers are finding themselves hindered, baffled 
and discouraged by problems and responsibilities which 
they could easily meet had they adequate preparation for 
their duties. Difficulties that ought to serve as stepping- 
stones to greater efficiency become stumbling-blocks in the 
way of progress and advancement. Powers and capaci- 
ties that should develop with the experience of the school- 
room fail to advance because of not having had sufficient 
opportunities for growth. Such teachers, having in them 



138 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

the possibilities of great service, are rendering mediocre 
or poor service ; possessing the capacity for great personal 
success and achievement, they accomplish small results. 
And all this because of lack of sufficient education and 
training for their work. 

Nor should the requirement of adequate scholastic 
preparation be looked on b}'- teachers as a hardship. It is 
Scholastic require- a false system of pedagogical book- 
ments no hardship keeping that leads some teachers to 
place on the debit side of their accounts all the time, effort 
and money expended in preparing for their work, and on 
the credit side only the salary they receive in return. For 
all that is required of a teacher in the way of scholastic 
preparation for his work is valuable and necessary just 
as education. No intelligent, ambitious American youth 
should be satisfied to enter on his career in any vocation 
to-day with less than a good high-school education. We 
are asking no more education of our teachers, therefore, 
than twentieth-century conditions demand of all who 
covet success and happiness. And every earnest teacher 
will be willing and glad to meet these new demands, even 
at the cost of personal effort and sacrifice. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. Regardless of requirements in your own state, what 
do you think is the least amount of schooling that should 
admit one to teaching? Do you approve of the require- 
ment in certain states that does not admit candidates to 
first examination for a teacher's certificate without gradu- 
ation from a four-year high school ? 

2. In some states the teachers' examination papers are 
all graded by the state department of education instead of 
by the county superintendent. What advantage has such 
a plan ? 



SCHOLASTIC PREPARATION 139 

3. Do you think that, in general, it pays teachers to 
attend summer schools ? Is there danger of one actually 
losing ground while teaching if he does no special study ? 

4. In some states even low-grade certificates are re- 
newable for life when once obtained. Do you believe 
this plan is best for the schools? 

5. Does the statement, "Knowledge is power," hold 
in teaching? Amplify your answer to explain just what 
you mean. 

6. When one is meeting the requirements for teaching 
is one not adding to one's own education, so that there 
is no real hardship involved ? Do we in general ask more 
education of our rural teachers than all American citizens 
should have ? 

7. Suppose that you are teaching, but have never 
studied agriculture, and that this subject is now to be 
added in your school. What course should you pursue? 
Is there danger of defeating the whole purpose of the 
new education by allowing unprepared teachers to at- 
tempt to teach what they do not know ? 

8. Suppose a girl expects to teach but two or three 
years, and then to marry. What should be her attitude 
toward scholastic preparation? 



CHAPTER IX 

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 

Knowledge of subject-matter, while the first requisite 
in the training o£ the teacher, is not all. It is one thing 
to possess certain knowledge, and quite another thing to 
be able to teach it to others. The older supposition was 
that scholastic training is all that is necessary in order 
to become a successful teacher. But we have discovered 
that this is not true. The great specialist is often the 
poorest teacher. President Butler says that the worst of 
all teaching is being done in the colleges and universities. 
The professors are noted scholars, but many of them are 
not teachers. They are masters of their subjects, but they 
do not know how to present these subjects to students. 

But the possession of knowledge coupled with inability 
to teach it is not confined to college specialists. The most 
Example of lack dismal failure in a certain county in 
of professional a western state noted for its high 

training scholastic requirements was a rural 

teacher who held a degree from the justly celebrated uni- 
versity of her state. She began teaching when normal 
training was not considered essential; she did not know 
children, nor how to teach them. She seemed to assume 
that children learn just as she herself learned, and made 
no effort to meet them on their own level. Finding the 
elementary branches of the rural school easy for her own 

140 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 141 

mind to grasp, she failed to understand the difficulties 
they presented to the minds of her pupils. This woman 
has now taught for fifteen years, but no two of these 
years in the same school. She is recognized as a mediocre 
teacher in some schools, as a failure in others. In no 
school is she called a success. She has failed and, it is to 
be feared, always will fail, because she lacks knowledge 
of children, of method, of school organization and man- 
agement. The chances are that if this well-educated 
teacher had at the right time been given proper instruc- 
tion and help in the practical problems of the schoolroom, 
she would have developed into an excellent teacher. But 
she quickly found her poor methods crystallizing into bad 
schoolroom habits ; she early fell into a rut of inefficiency, 
and has now been too long in that rut to seek a better way. 
She has lost confidence in herself, and no longer expects 
success, even with her splendid academic equipment. 

This is no argument against thorough scholastic train- 
ing. Far from it. It rather shows the necessity for 

„ , . adding to one's knowledge of subject- 

Teachins an art o j 

matter the further knowledge of how 

to teach it. For teaching is an art. It rests on certain 
scientific principles, and has to be learned, the same as any 
other art. We say that some persons are "born" teach- 
ers ; but this only means that they more clearly and easily 
seize the fundamental principles underlying instruction, 
and more skilfully put them into practise. But even 
"born" teachers need to be trained in the principles of 
their art. For such training will save them from many 
mistakes ; and a teacher's mistakes are always made at the 
expense of some child's growth and development. His 
acquisition of skill as a teacher has cost his pupils dear. 
We do not place tools in the hands of an untrained work- 



142 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

man and set him at work on expensive rosewood and ma- 
hogany. We first train him in the use of his tools, so that 
he will not waste costly material. Yet the rosewood and 
mahogany are, after all, but wood. If a piece is spoiled 
it does not so much matter ; a few dollars will replace it. 
But the teacher works, not on material that can be re- 
placed if injured or destroyed, but on lives whose success 
and happiness depend on the teacher's skill. A mistake 
made in the education of a child can never be wholly com- 
pensated for. "Art is long and time is fleeting." Educa- 
tion-time is all too short at best, and time lost through 
poor methods or lack of skill on the part of the teacher is 
irretrievably gone. There can be no making up for the 
past; the present is too full of its own demands and op- 
portunities. It is more than probable that if teachers 
were able to put into practise in their instruction the best 
pedagogical principles now available to them, at least 
double the educational progress could he made by our 
children. Think of the time and opportunity that would 
then be saved ! Think of the greater efficiency that would 
result from our schools, and the greater achievement that 
would be wrought by our people ! 

The necessity for training in the art of teaching is now 
coming to be recognized everywhere. None doubt this 
Growth of normal necessity except the ignorant. Hence 
training ^e find normal schools springing up 

in every state, while in some states there are more than 
a score such schools. 

A more recent movement has been the development 
of normal-training courses for rural teachers in the high 
schools. Arkansas, Maine, New York, Michigan, North 
Carolina, Vermont, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, 
Virginia and Wisconsin are in the process of developing 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 143 

systems of normal-training high schools, where the pros- 
pective rural teacher can acquire scholastic and profes- 
sional training at the same time. There is little doubt 
that the movement will soon spread to other states. Thus 
the opportunities are multiplying for professional as well 
as scholastic training, and thousands of teachers will soon 
hardly need to leave their own homes, and certainly not 
their own counties, in order to obtain normal prepara- 
tion for their teaching. 

These schools are not all of equal worth to the teacher. 
There is a great difference in the value of the training 
The function of the offered in normal schools. In fact 
normal school some so-called normal schools are lit- 

tle more than schools for additional scholastic training. 
They seek chiefly to teach the prospective teacher a little 
more history, to lead him to study a few more literary 
classics, to enable him to solve more difficult problems in 
algebra or arithmetic. They ask him to familiarize him- 
self with additional scientific classifications, and to learn 
still deeper and more technical truths concerning analyt- 
ical psychology. These things are all abundantly worth 
while as a part of the academic education of the teacher. 
But it is not the chief function of the normal school to 
teach them. The normal school will need, of course, to 
teach a certain amount of scholastic material. For 
method and principles can not be separated from the mat- 
ter to which they apply. The great work of the normal 
school, however, is to teach how to teach. And all mat- 
ter taught to prospective teachers in normal schools 
should be taught them primarily as teachers instead oi as 
learners. If the teacher is ready to take up the work of 
the normal school, it is not more grammar that he needs 
to study, but how to teach the grammar he knows. It 



144 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

is not more skill in arithmetic that he requires, but more 
skill in teaching arithmetic to children. And so on with 
all the remainder of the subjects. The practical con- 
crete problems of the class and the schoolroom should 
constitute the center of attention and effort in normal 
training. 

To this end the normal school must be able to demon- 
strate in actual operation among children in school the 
Need for "observa- theories and methods presented. This 
tion work" is to say that normal-training schools, 

whether public normal schools or normal high schools, 
must afford an opportunity for prospective teachers to 
watch the instruction of children, or to take part in it 
themselves under the direction of a training teacher. How 
different might have been the result if the university 
graduate mentioned had taught her first school fresh 
from the influence of a helpful critic teacher! It is safe 
to say that she would not have been a failure, but pos- 
sibly even a marked success. She could have observed 
how a skilful teacher manages and teaches children. She 
would have discovered the necessity of meeting children 
on their own mental plane, and not expecting them to be 
grown-up in their grasp and understanding. She would 
have learned that scolding and bickering and faultfinding 
are not the best way of controlling a school, and that lec- 
turing is a poor method of instruction. And having 
been thus started right in her career, her chance of be- 
coming a successful teacher would have been greatly in- 
creased. 

Rural teachers of the present day need especially to be 
taught how to present the newer and more practical sub- 
Training to teach j^cts, such as agriculture, manual 
newer subjects training and domestic science. Nor- 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 145 

mal training should therefore include a strong labora- 
tory course in these branches, with especial emphasis on 
how to correlate them with other school subjects and teach 
them to children. It is not enough that the rural teacher 
may have had much practical experience on the farm, or 
with tools. One may know a great deal about agriculture, 
and yet be ignorant of the art of teaching it to children. 
Many a good farmer makes a very poor instructor to his 
boys. John Ricketts knew much about farming, carpentry, 
sewing and cooking before he attended the normal school ; 
but he did not know just what of these things to teach 
or how best to present them to children. A high school 
which has recently introduced manual training thought 
to make the work very practical by employing as instruc- 
tor a skilled mechanic of the town. But he proved a 
lamentable failure. The man had handled tools all his 
life, but he could not teach others to use them. So great 
is the difference between knowing a thing, and knowing 
how to cause others to learn it. 

The fate of the new branches now being introduced 
into the rural schools will depend in large degree on the 
skill and effectiveness with which they are taught. If 
the teacher presents agriculture in an impractical way, 
revealing his own lack of knowledge of the subject or his 
inability to teach it, both the pupils and their parents will 
doubt the value of its study. If manual training is looked 
upon chiefly as play, and useful only in making bric-a- 
brac and fragile ornaments, the school board may well 
hesitate to invest money in tools and equipment. If do- 
mestic science is conceived only as an opportunity to do 
some interesting puttering around while cooking fudge 
or preparing fancy desserts, it will be sure to fail in 
awakening enthusiasm among the practical housewives 



<146 BETTER RURAL! SCHOOLS 

of the school community. Each of these great lines of 
study must be understood in its fundamental and deeply 
practical bearings. The teacher needs to comprehend 
their relation to the most vital interests and welfare of 
his people. And he must know how to teach them that 
they may accomplish the ends sought through placing 
them in the rural school, — the better fitting of the boys 
and girls into the practical life and duties of farm and 
home. 

The rural teacher who to-day possesses a good educa- 
tion and a practical normal training has a great advantage 
Advantages to the ^^^^ ^^^ untrained teacher. Many of 
professionally these better-prepared teachers are be- 

trained teacher ginning their first schools with more 

helpful knowledge of school work than older teachers 
had after teaching several years in a hit-and-miss fashion 
with no one to show them how. School officials who 
visit the schools now taught by these inexperienced but 
well-trained teachers can hardly believe that such excel- 
lent work can come from one who has taught so little. 
Their success is the result of education and training, the 
proof that it pays to take time for preparation. These 
teachers are receiving immediate and substantial rewards 
for their more efficient service. They are chosen for 
promotion, the better positions are open to them, and 
they are the first to receive increased salaries. Above all 
they have the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing 
their work well, and thus contributing to the efficiency and 
welfare of their pupils. 

The professional training of the teacher includes a 
knowledge of child life. This, like other phases of train- 
ing, is partly a matter of books, but it is also a matter 
of intelligent and sympathetic observation. Here, too. 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 147 

the spirit of the teacher is an all-important factor. Chil- 
dren are often not understood simply because the teacher 

^ , . , . . has not taken the trouble to under- 
Professional tram- , , -rx , r 1 • 
ing includes the stand them. He has forgotten his 

<^^^^^ own childhood, and does not remem- 

ber that when he was a child he spoke as a child, he un- 
derstood as a child, he thought as a child. And now that 
he has become a man, he has put away childish things so 
completely that he no longer knows childhood or enters 
into its spirit. 

One teacher describes an incident that illustrates the 
lack of a sympathetic understanding of children. She, 
as principal of her building, stepped into a schoolroom 
where some forty bright-eyed boys and girls of nine and 
ten were sitting. Outside the haze was gathering, and 
the dull gray clouds hung low. Suddenly it began to 
snow, first slowly, and then in great flurries. It was the 
first snow of winter. The children turned to look out 
of the window, happiness on every face. One small boy 
in his enthusiasm forgot where he was, and said in a 
loud whisper, "Look, it's snowing!" The teacher had 
been annoyed by the wandering eyes. "We all know it's 
snowing," she said in a cold level voice; "we have seen 
it snow before. We are drawing maps now." So the 
children went back to their maps with a sigh, and the gap 
widened a little between them and their teacher. "Ah 
me!" concludes our principal; "She has forgotten the 
first snow when one is ten and just before Christmas."^ 

Another teacher, by no means heartless, surely failed to 
comprehend that heartache may be as real and cause as 
The unkind much suffering in the child as in the 

teacher adult. A certain day had been trying 

^ In Living Teachers. 



148 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

and the children were restless. Small, freckle-faced Mary 
had twisted and turned about more than once during the 
long afternoon. Finally the last straw came, and the 
teacher said in a voice that cut, "Mary, if I had a face lik^ 
yours, I would not turn around so often and show it 
to others." Poor Mary's freckles were buried in a flood 
of scarlet, her eyes slowly filled until they overflowed, 
and she at last dropped her disgraced head on her arms 
and sobbed until her small form shook and her breath 
came in broken gasps. And all because her teacher failed 
to keep close to the heart of childhood. Nor is the sequel 
of this incident without its lesson. For, when the back 
of the thoughtless teacher was turned, a small red-haired- 
knight across the aisle leaned over and whispered in 
Mary's ear: "Never mind, Mary; she's none too good 
looking herself!" — Ah, could we all as teachers but 
measure up to van Dyke's challenge when he cries out for 
"a friend whose heart has eyes to see" ! 

One who understands childhood is able to meet his 
pupils on their own intellectual ground. He does not at- 
Teaching children tempt to teach dry and formal rules' 
instead of subjects instead of living interesting matter. 
Meaningless definitions are not foisted on the children as 
knowledge. Tangled and meaningless problems in arith- 
metic give way to problems dealing with matters of ex- 
perience and interest. Points at which the child's mind is' 
puzzled are foreseen by the teacher and help is given. 
Explanations are couched in terms understood by the, 
pupil. In fact, such a teacher teaches the child and not 
the subject. 

A teacher who failed to understand the working of a 
child's mind answered the raised hand of a boy sitting 
puzzled over a problem in arithnietic. The class had just 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 149 

begun the study of interest, and Dan knew nothing con- 
cerning the borrowing of money, the giving of notes, and 
pay for the use of the money. For this teacher was of 
the kind who teach just what they find in the text-book, 
nothing more and nothing less. Dan said to the teacher, 
"I don't understand this example, and don't know how 
to work it." The teacher looked her annoyance as she 
answered, "O Dan! can't you understand anything? 
Didn't I tell you that the principal times the rate times 
the time equals the interest?" — ^pause. Dan sulkily 
nods his head. The teacher's face shows relief. She 
concludes her explanation: "Well, that's all there is to 
it ; the principal times the rate times the time equals the 
interest. Now you see!" Poor Dan! The blind was 
leading the blind and both were falling into the ditch — 
Dan, into the ditch of despondency and dislike for school ; 
the teacher into the ditch of inefficiency and uselessness." 

The teacher who is able to enter fully into the lives of 
his pupils becomes a very potent influence in their de- 
Influence of the velopment. Most of us can now look 
strong teacher back to our own school-days and recall 

one or more teachers who stand out in our memory as 
a great source of inspiration and helpfulness. This ideal 
teacher was a sort of hero or heroine in our eyes, partly 
idealized in our imagination, it is true, and yet a very real 
and powerful factor in our growth. Perhaps the great- 
est secret of this teacher's power over us was his com- 
plete understanding of us. He knew where our benighted 
minds would be puzzled in our studies, he entered into 
our childish interests and enthusiasms, he remembered 
that we were dust, and therefore could not be paragons 
of perfection. 

Happy is the teacher who thus understands, the secret 



I50 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

springs of ambition in the heart of youth. Professor 
James tells us that there is a moment in the life of every 
normal boy which, if seized on when the time is ripe, can 
be utilized to make out of him poet, philosopher, artist, 
artisan, or whatever it is his to be. But if this moment 
is let go by, if the smoldering spark of ambition is not 
fanned into flame, the occasion is lost and ambition and 
aspiration may die. An eminent statesman and brilliant 
lawyer was recently asked what was the secret of his 
success. He answered: "A school-teacher who under- 
stood the hunger in the heart of a boy. One day he 
found me, a bitter and discontented youth with scanty 
education and no prospects, following a rude plow across 
a stony and exhausted field. He sat down beside me on 
the old wooden plow beam, and found his way into my 
life. He read me like a book, for he understood me. 
After he had gone I was astonished at the strange fire 
of ambition that was burning in my soul. That was all 
I needed; time and work have accomplished the rest. 
But I do not like to think what might have been the 
outcome of my life if that teacher had not understood 
me, and talked to me there by the plow." 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. Have you observed teachers whose knowledge of 
subject-matter seemed sufficient, but who failed because 
of not understanding how to teach it to others ? 

2. Do you think a teacher is morally justified in learn- 
ing to teach through "experience" gained by experiment- 
ing on children, when opportunities are at hand for pro- 
fessional study, practise teaching and observation work 
in normal schools ? 

3. We are at present much concerned over securing 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 151 

but one-half the crop our soil is capable of producing. 
Apply this same principle to our schools in the light of the 
estimate that double the progress could be made by the 
children if they were taught by correct methods. What 
are your conclusions ? 

4. We occasionally hear it said that any one who 
knows a subject well can teach it. Is this true? It is 
also rather commonly assumed that almost any one can 
teach young children. Why should young children have 
the choicest and best prepared teachers ? 

5. Outline what you think the necessary education, 
both academic and professional, for one about to take up 
teaching in the rural schools. 

6. Does professional training pay financially? (Make 
a comparison of the salaries of teachers in your county 
who have had professional training and those who have 
not. Also, take into account the better opportunities for 
promotion.) 

7. Have you known teachers to fail because of failure 
to understand children? Were such teachers usually 
lacking in sympathy for people in general ? Can you rec- 
ommend a remedy? (Study of psychology and cultiva- 
tion of interest in others.) 

8. Are children more or less sensitive than adults? 
Are they usually treated with as much consideration as 
to their real rights as are adults? Does treating a child 
with consideration mean weakness or lack of control? 



CHAPTER X 

TEACHER AND COMMUNITY 

The teacHer, like all other employees of the state, is in 
some sense a public personage. His duties and relations 
do not terminate with the school, but extend to every 
individual and home in the community. The teacher can 
not say, I am employed by the district only for the time 
from nine o'clock until four on five days each week ; and 
it is no one's business what I do outside of this time. 
No public servant can take this position, much less can 
the teacher. Having employed a teacher, the rural com- 
munity feels a species of general proprietorship in him 
and all his affairs. He is freely discussed, and openly 
blamed or praised. Nothing he does escapes notice and 
judgment. His conduct, his speech, or his clothing, is 
equally a subject for comment or criticism. 

Nor should the teacher blame the community or feel 
any resentment over what at first thought may seem an 
The teacher owes unwarranted assumption of the right 
full service to appropriate him completely, once 

the community has paid for a fraction of his time. For 
one in a public position such as teaching can not sell a 
certain portion of his time, or powers, or influence. It 
is true the teacher may not be compelled to work in the 
schoolroom seven days a week instead of five, or ten 
hours a day in place of six. But his interests, his thought 

152 



TEACHER AND COMMUNITY 153 

and plans, his sympathy and cooperation, his uprightness 
and good example are placed wholly under tribute to the 
community when the contract is entered into. There can 
be no reservations, no withholding of service or influence, 
no feeling that the teacher belongs to the community 
during the school hours but not outside of school hours. 
For however true this may be in a legal sense, from a 
higher point of view such an attitude is impossible for 
the true teacher; it contradicts the very idea of whole- 
hearted service, and shows the teacher lacking in the 
spirit necessary to the highest success. 

But even the willingness to give himself wholly to his 
work does not insure the teacher's success. Many teach- 

Knowledge of ^^^ ^^^^' "°^ because they withhold 

community essen- their effort, but because they do not 
know their communities, and hence do 
not understand their needs, standards and attitudes. 
They look on the school as a thing in itself, apart from 
the community, and finally discover that the school is but 
one part of the larger community life, and can be under- 
stood and successfully carried on only in connection with 
this larger whole. 

One such teacher had recently completed a very suc- 
cessful term in a community which she knew well. 
She took a new school in a distant part of the same 
county in a community wholly unknown to her. On the 
Saturday preceding the opening of the new term she ar- 
rived in the neighborhood, not knowing where she was 
to board. Some one suggested the home of Samuel 
Dwight. She became a member of the Dwight family, 
attending church with them on the following day, and 
being introduced to many of the neighbors as the "new 
teacher." On Monday the new teacher noticed that she 



154 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

was received by the school less cordially than was the 
custom in former schools. By the middle of the week 
she began to hear whispers of criticism. Before the first 
week had ended she knew something was wrong. On the 
next Sunday, the school trustee explained to her the 
trouble : The community was divided by a bitter factional 
fight, and Samuel Dwight was leader of an unpopular mi- 
nority. She had chosen the wrong boarding-place. 

This new teacher had blundered innocently, but she had 
blundered. If she had known her community before en- 
gaging her boarding-place or opening the school, she 
could have avoided the mistake, and saved herself much 
unhappiness and worry. For, try hard as she might, this 
excellent teacher found it impossible to regain her stand- 
ing in that community, and was obliged to leave the 
school, an acknowledged failure. The school had failed 
in efficiency to the community, and she failed in render- 
ing her best service in the school. 

In striking contrast with this case was that of another 
teacher who, in the earlier days, was employed to teach 
the winter term in a rural school in northern Missouri. 
This young man, a mere stripling, had heard something 
of the difficulties to be encountered in his school. The 
former teachers had been turned out each winter for the 
three preceding years. Our young stripling looked like 
an easy mark, for he was small and slender, and not 
skilled in the rougher arts of self-defense. He went 
over to the district a full week before the school was to 
open, to see if perchance he could better prepare for the 
opening day. He went about the neighborhood and be- 
came acquainted with the patrons and the pupils. Espe- 
cially did he look up one particular boy called Bill. He 
desired to become acquainted with Bill, for two reasons : 



TEACHER AND COMMUNITY 155 

Bill was something of a hunter, and the teacher liked to 
hunt. But Bill was also a leader of the gang that had 
turned the previous teachers out, and the teacher wanted 
to win Bill to his side. The teacher and Bill went coon 
hunting together ; they shucked corn into the same wagon. 
Before the end of the week they had become friends. 

Monday morning came, and the young teacher was at 
the school early. The boys began to assemble on the 
"Bill" becomes a school ground. The teacher heard 
friend them talking as he worked by an open 

window. They were planning how they would begin on 
the new teacher, and were laying wagers as to how long 
he would last. Suddenly the teacher heard a new voice 
enter the conference. It was Bill. "What's up, boys?" 
said Bill. They told him, expecting Bill to suggest a 
bolder and more effective plan than they had conceived, 
and then to take the lead in its execution. But imagine 
their astonishment when Bill answered : "It's all off, 
boys. Nobody is going to interfere with the new teacher. 
I've got acquainted with him and he's the right kind. 
He's square ; he'll be fair. I'm his friend, and anybody 
that puts up trouble for him has got me to lick — See?" 
They saw. 

This incident was related in introducing the two prin- 
cipal speakers before a great educational convention a 
Two famous number of years ago. These speak- 

educators ers were Bill and his former 

teacher, still fast friends and now famous educa- 
tors. They were introduced as "the Honorable William 
T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education," 
and "the Honorable Henry Sabin, State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction in Iowa." The young stripling of 
a teacher, by his willingness to make himself one of his 



156 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

school community, had been instrumental in giving to his 
country one of the greatest educators of modern times, 
and had foreshadowed his own highly honorable and use- 
ful educational career. Besides this, he had won out in 
his winter's school. 

The teacher who is to take a helpful part in arousing 
a sentiment for better education and in promoting higher 
The teachermust efficiency in rural schools must be- 
become part of come an integral part of the commu- 
the community j^j^y_ jj^j^ influence can not be exerted 

by an outsider; it must come from one who, in interest 
and sympathies, is closely united with his people. Nor 
can this attitude of cooperation on the part of the teacher 
have anything of the artificial or professional in it. Make- 
believe will not serve. The interest manifested in the life 
of the community must be deep-seated and true. The 
shallow and false is easily detected, and people resent 
nothing more quickly than being patronized. The teacher 
who feels, however, that he is wanting in this broader 
and deeper interest in the welfare of the whole com- 
munity need not excuse himself on this ground from tak- 
ing any part in the community life. The remedy for a 
spirit of indifference is service. We are always deeply 
interested in those we are seeking to help, and there is 
no cure like disinterested service for narrowness and 
provincialism. Even a small self-centered nature can 
take a small circle of intimates into his thought and 
sympathy ; but it requires a broad generous nature to in- 
clude the many. And more than one teacher has found 
his own personality expanding and his interest in human- 
ity growing stronger and more inclusive because he has 
forgotten himself in unselfish work for his school and 
its people. 



TEACHER AND COMMUNITY 157 

Ability to enter fully into the spirit and activities of the 
rural community depends in large degree on familiarity 
with rural life. A large proportion of our rural teachers 
are girls and boys from the town schools who have never 
lived on a farm. Not a few of these young people have 
a feeling of superiority over country people, and a tend- 
ency to pity every one who is obliged to live outside a 
town or city. It is hardly necessary to say that this 
attitude arises chiefly from ignorance of the possibilities 
of country life, and from lack of acquaintance with rural 
people. 

No teacher can render the maximum of service in a 
rural school or be the element of strength he should be in 
Interests must in- the community unless his knowledge, 
elude the farm j^jg interests and his experience extend 

beyond the boundary lines of towns or cities or school- 
room walls. His horizon must reach out into the open 
fields of rural life. If the teacher would become a true 
leader of rural children along pathways that lead to the 
farms instead of to the towns, he must know thoroughly 
both the pathway and its goal. Necessary as text-book 
knowledge and normal training are, these are but the 
foundation. The teacher must know rural life and needs 
so well that he can relate all the work of the school to 
their problems and conditions. 

David Starr Jordan says, "The knowledge which is of 
most worth to most people is that which can be most 
The teacher must directly wrought into the fabric of 
know farm chil- their lives. And the discipline which 
is of most value to most people is that 
which can best serve in the unfolding of their individual- 
ities." If this be true the teacher must know the fabric 
of the daily life of his pupils, and the direction which the 



158 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

unfolding o£ their individualities should take. And he 
can not know these things and remain ignorant of the 
farm and its possibilities. 

Not a few teachers coming from the towns to teach in 
rural schools are unhappy and below their best in effi- 
Teachers must ex- ciency because they can not accustom 
pect limitations themselves to the isolation and certain 
privations of the country. In place of well-paved and 
electric-lighted streets, they find dark and muddy roads. 
They miss the street-cars, the fine shops and stores, the 
theaters and picture shows. The country appears to them 
dead and monotonous without the glare and the glamour 
and the crowds of the city. But rural life is not made 
up of these things, and the teacher who is not able to work 
contentedly without them should stay out of the rural 
schools. Or, better still, he should seek until he finds the 
compensations in rural life that render the city no longer 
necessary to his contentment and happiness. 

One teacher lost the best of her influence and the 
greater part of her usefulness in a rural school because 
City methods not ^^^ attempted to force on the school 
adapted to country the methods to which she had been 
accustomed in the town high school. As a high-school 
pupil she had been required to prepare certain lessons 
and do assigned reading in the evening at home. This 
looked reasonable enough, so she placed the same require- 
ments on the farm boys and girls during the busy season 
of the year, not realizing the amount of work expected 
of these children around the house and the garden and 
in the barnyard chores. Of course there was criticism, 
then objection, and finally remonstrance and rebellion. 
This teacher would have been saved her mistake had she 
known that most of her pupils were up and at work in the 



TEACHER AND COMMUNITY 159 

morning full two hours before her own day began, and 

that they closed their day and were asleep in the evening 

at the time she would be settling down to her reading. 

She was ignorant of rural life and work. 

We are inclined in these modern days to smile at the 

old pioneer custom of "boarding 'round" as a means of 

-, . caring: for the teacher. Under this 

Becoming ac- ° 

quainted with the plan the teacher was expected to stay 
community ^ week at a time at the home of each 

of the patrons of the school. In this way he shared in 
the collective life of the community and came to know in 
a very practical way the duties and responsibilities of his 
pupils and their parents. Of course no one would advo- 
cate a return to such a system, yet it had its advantages. 
And our problem to-day is to gain that intimate knowl- 
edge of the actual daily life and thought of our pupils 
that the old-time teacher was able to get from becoming 
temporarily a member of their families. 

It is sometimes objected that rural people do not de- 
sire the teacher to visit their homes, or to assume the 
Method of ap- position of leadership among them, 

proach It is said that the teacher is employed 

to teach the school and that there his functions end. This 
question will depend almost wholly on the teacher's spirit, 
tact and judgment. Many farm homes would no doubt 
find it something of a burden to entertain the teacher, 
especially during the busy season of the year, as formal 
"company." It is probable that even a fashionable "call" 
from the teacher, just when the chores are to be done or 
the supper prepared, would not be highly welcome. Nor 
would any community submit to being "led" or "re- 
formed" in any professional or high-handed way. The 
teacher whose tact and judgment will not save him from 



i6o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

making such blunders as these would better confine his 

activities strictly to the school. 

But it should not be forgotten that people everywhere, 

and nowhere more than among those on the farms, re- 

-, - . ... spond to true friendliness and the 

True friendship ^. . 

sure to meet spirit of comradeship. Let the teacher 

response approach the homes of his patrons, not 

in the spirit of professionalism but in the spirit of true 
friendship and the desire to get and give on the common 
level of coworkers for the upbuilding of the school and 
community ; there will then be no lack of cordiality. Let 
him really become a member of the community in spirit 
and deed, showing a knowledge of its needs and condi- 
tions ; there will then be no trouble about his position of 
leadership. For this will be granted to him by common 
consent, and will be accompanied by quick responsiveness 
and ready appreciation. 

A teacher in an Iowa rural district put this principle to 
test in a very concrete way. She had recently begun her 
A practical test school in a new community, and had 
of helpfulness her boarding-place near the home of 

three of her pupils, whose mother had the care of a large 
household. No help was to be had in this home and the 
mother was often overworked. One evening threshers 
came, and the mother sighed as she thought of the break- 
fast to get and the children to prepare for school. Imag- 
ine her surprise the next morning when, as she entered 
the kitchen before it was yet light, to take up the day's 
work, a knock came at the door, and a young woman 
decked in a large kitchen apron said, "I am the new 
teacher. I knew you had threshers and wondered 
whether you wouldn't let me help start the day's work. 
I know how to cook." When the teacher left three hours 



TEACHER AND COMMUNITY i6i 

later to prepare for school, the day's work was well under 
way, and she had won for herself a secure place in the 
friendship and regard of that household. 

This is a commonplace incident it is true, and would be 
unimportant were it not for the suggestion and promise 
-,, , , it contains. This teacher has now 

comes one of the been for several years in the same 
community school, and is a welcome guest and 

friend in every home in the community. She is invited, 
even during the summer vacation time, to the various so- 
cial functions of the neighborhood, and often comes from 
her own home some distance away to visit among her 
friends of the school community. Her influence has been 
felt in every home she has entered, and is to be seen in the 
greatly increased efficiency of the school. And, inciden- 
tally, her own salary has been greatly advanced. What 
this one teacher has accomplished in winning her way into 
the hearts and lives of her school people can be done by all 
other teachers, who are willing to take the trouble, and 
who know how. Responsiveness and cooperation are 
ready waiting for every rural teacher who is able to com- 
mand it by worthy qualities of leadership in himself. 

The relations which every teacher sustains to the public 
extend also to his standards of conduct. And whatever 
-,, , , may be the convictions of the teacher 

standards of on social or moral questions, the judg- 

conduct ment of the community is to be taken 

into account. In some communities, attending dances and 
card parties is looked on as highly questionable or even 
wholly immoral. In other places these things are consid- 
ered unobjectionable, or at least permissible. Some com- 
munities expect the teacher to attend the local church and 
take some part in its activities, while others have no such 



i62 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

custom. It is manifestly impossible to lay down any fixed 
rule for teachers to follow in such matters. The prin- 
ciple, however, is clear that the teacher should not violate 
the community's sense of propriety on social or moral 
questions. This is to say, that the teacher, no matter 
what his own convictions, should not do things which the 
people believe and teach their children are wrong. For, 
as we have already seen, the teacher can not separate his 
private life from his public influence. And he has no 
right to offend the convictions of his patrons. Par- 
ticularly should the teacher set no example which may not 
safely be followed by his pupils. Where there is the least 
question of right and wrong involved, the decision should 
always fall on the safe side. Certainly boys will be de- 
prived of no advantage if they are not led by the teacher's 
exarnple to play cards and smoke, and girls will suffer no 
loss of accomplishment if they are not led through imi- 
tation of a teacher to attend public dances. None will ob- 
ject if the teacher refrains from doing the things that are 
questioned, while some may be offended or led astray if 
he does them. 

All this does not mean that the teacher should cater 
to every whim of the community, and have no convictions 

_, ^ , t. ij of his own. It rather means that he 
The teacher should 

not offend commu- should conform to the community 
nity standards standard where no question of con- 

viction is involved, or where the community standard is 
higher than his standard. It need hardly be argued that 
a teacher should never lower his standards or violate his 
convictions in order to meet standards beneath his own. 

The point of view presented in this chapter may be ob- 
jected to by some who say that teaching is a business 
proposition, and that the teacher is paid simply for in- 



TEACHER AND COMMUNITY 163 

struction in the schoolroom. He can not be expected, it 

may be argued, to extend his service and influence to the 

community outside the school. From the legal point of 

view this claim will be frankly granted. Whether one 

shall take the legal point of view instead of the one here 

presented will depend wholly on his philosophy of life. 

H the idea of service and the investment of influence 

does not appeal to one, he will be unconvinced, and believe 

_, , , that the teacher owes the community 

The legal versus 

the social point only the work of the schoolroom. 

°f ^^^^ If he does not believe that every 

great work well done reflects its greatness on the 
worker, he will differ from our conclusions. If his 
social code is that one should do only what one is paid for 
doing, then he will combat our position. But if one be- 
lieves that no worker can afford to put less than his best 
powers into his work ; if he looks on the chance for help- 
ful service as one of the opportunities of life ; if he is 
convinced that the richest rewards and fullest develop- 
ment come from the most complete giving of self to its 
task, then he can not be satisfied with the mere legal 
view of the teacher's relations to the school. 

Which is the better philosophy of life? On which 
would the teacher better plan his career ? 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. How far and in what sense does the teacher belong 
to the community outside of school hours ? 

2. Should a teacher ordinarily participate in neighbor- 
hood social affairs that take his time and keep him up 
late during the school week? A teacher once remarked 
that she thought one ought not to be required to teach 



i64 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

next day after attending a dance. What do you think 
about it ? 

3. Is there any danger from a teacher going into a 
community as a "reformer," instead of as a friend and 
helper? (Do not most people resent being "reformed" 
and "elevated" ?) 

4. Have you ever known teachers to lose their Influ- 
ence by being drawn into a neighborhood feud? How 
Can such difficulty be avoided? 

5. Do you believe that teachers should visit the homes 
of the pupils when not especially invited ? What caution 
need be observed in such a procedure? If "home project" 
work is being carried out, does this open the way for the 
teacher ? 

6. Is the teacher under any obligations to use time 
prior to the opening of the term in familiarizing himself 
with conditions in the community? Do you think, that 
in general, the chapter makes of the teacher too much of 
a missionary? If so, make a statement of your own 
thought of what should constitute the teacher's relation 
to the community. 

7. How far is the teacher to assume responsibility for 
the standards and social conduct of his pupils outside the 
school ? 

8. Will you attempt to formulate what you think 
should be a teacher's "philosophy of life," as mentioned 
near the close of the chapter? 



CHAPTER XI 



ORGANIZATION 



The rural teacher has three great problems confronting 
him, while the town or city teacher has but two. For 
every school, no matter whether large or small, whether 
in city or country, requires that three things shall be done 
for it: it must (i) be organized, (2) managed, and (3) 
taught. The rural teacher has all three of these prob- 
lems to meet; the town teacher has but the last two. 
For in the town school the superintendent and principal 
assume full responsibility for the organization of the 
school. The teacher has but to see to the management 
and teaching of his room. 

And, indeed, the city teacher is not fully responsible 
even for the management and teaching of his school. For 
The rural teacher *^^ superintendent and principal are 
meets difficulties always at hand to offer suggestions 
^^°"® and advice, and to them the more 

difficult problems can be referred. The rural teacher 
has only himself to depend on. For the help that 
can be rendered by the board is negligible, and the 
county superintendent is too far away and his visits are 
too rare to be of immediate assistance when needed. In 
the consolidated rural school the difficulties of organiza- 
tion are, of course, greatly reduced. But the daily prob- 

i6a 



i66 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

lems of the district school must all be met by the rural 
teacher as they arise, and on the basis of his own judg- 
ment. To be successful the rural teacher must therefore 
have a ready and accurate knowledge of the principles 
underlying the three great fields of problems connected 
with his work — he must understand clearly the organiza- 
tion, the management and the teaching of the rural school. 
In general it may be said that to organise a school is to 
make it ready to run ; that is, to prepare it to do its work. 
What it is to or- When the pupils assemble on the first 
ganize a school day of the term, they do not constitute 
a school, but are rather a crowd — so many individuals, 
each waiting to be assigned to his proper place and work. 
They are like the wheels and pinions of a watch which 
have not yet been fitted together. Each pupil must be 
made a member of a grade and certain classes, have 
studies assigned, be fitted into a certain routine and regu- 
lations, and have definite portions of the day set apart 
for study and recitations. When this all has been suc- 
cessfully accomplished, the school is organized ; it is ready 
to run. Every wheel is in its place, and the whole ma- 
chine can be set in motion. 

' Stated more in detail, it may be said that in organizing 
a school it (i) must be divided into grades and classes 
What organization suited to the age and advancement of 
must accomplish the pupils; (2) it must be determined 
what studies each pupil shall take, and the order in which 
they shall be pursued; (3) a program of daily recitation 
and study must be formulated ; (4) a routine for calling, 
dismissing classes, moving the school, etc., must be de- 
cided on and put into operation; (5) the regulations, or 
rules under which the school is to run must be determined 



ORGANIZATION 167 

and put into effect. When all this has been successfully 
worked out, the remaining problems will have to do 
chiefly with the management and teaching of the school. 
But until the important questions of organization are suc- 
cessfully solved, there is no possibility of success in the 
other lines of the teacher's work. 

The first day of the term is the most important day in 
matters of school organization. This is true because first 
Importance of impressions are the most lasting ones, 

right beginnings The children come to school on the 
opening day alert and curious, highly susceptible to im- 
pressions from the teacher and the school. All is antici- 
pation and speculation. Every movement made by the 
new teacher is watched and every word noted. At inter- 
missions and on the way home the teacher and his 
methods are discussed ; at the farm supper-table the new 
teacher and the school are the sole topic of conversation, 
and the impressions formed by the children and carried 
to their homes soon become neighborhood property. Bad 
impressions given out the first day will require weeks or 
months of high-grade service to overcome them, while 
good impressions at once become to the teacher a source 
of power and influence both in the school and the com- 
munity. 

The teacher must come to the first day, therefore, with 
as full information as possible of the problems to be met. 
Preparation for the ^^^ ^^^^ plans carefully matured for 
opening day the organization and management of 

the school. The first day must be a success. Nothing 
must be left to chance. The teacher must show no inde- 
cision, hesitancy or doubt in forming the classes, assign- 
ing the work, initiating the program, or doing any of the 



i68 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

many other things necessary in starting the school. He 
must be fully in command of the situation from the first 
moment, and neither falter nor blunder. 

This will require thought, planning and preparation. 
A recent visit to the principal of a large high school a 
week before the opening of the fall term found him busy 
at work in his office. He said, "I shall need to work 
here every day all this week in arranging the organization 
of my school. But by the time we have been in session 
for fifteen minutes on next Monday morning, no one 
could tell that we had not been running a month." This 
man was able to hold so large and responsible a position 
because he was willing to give time and thought in plan- 
ning and carrying out his work. 

Prior to the opening of the term the rural teacher 
should get the records of the school, and familiarize him- 
Work preliminary ^^^^ '^^^^ ^^^ names of the pupils last 
to organization in attendance, with what classes they 

were in, what texts they studied, how far they were ad- 
vanced in each branch, and any other facts that will be 
helpful. In addition to this, the names of the probable 
new pupils should be obtained, and an approximation 
made of where they will rank. If the former teacher 
can be consulted, much light can usually be gained on the 
matter of the school's organization. Only by such care 
and foresight can the teacher be ready for the opening 
day, and make it a success. 

A matter not less important than these questions of 
classification is that of the daily program. Work is the 
Importance of the ^^^^ preventive of mischief and dis- 
daily program order. Idle brains and idle hands are 

sure to make trouble. Definitely assigned lessons should 
be under way very soon after the first session opens. 



ORGANIZATION 169 

Classes should be called and brief recitations carried out 
in a regular sequence. The efficient teacher will go to his 
first day of school with a definite program of recitations 
in view. This program will probably have to be modified 
somewhat, but it is vastly better than no program, or 
one devised at random and on the spur of the moment. 
While probably the same program will not serve for any 
two consecutive terms, yet the program of the preceding 
term is usually the best basis on which to start, making 
whatever changes are necessary the first day, and con- 
tinuing these modifications until the program fits the new 
school. 

With such preparation for the first day, brief opening 
exercises can be had, the names of the pupils taken, a 
tentative classification effected, lessons assigned, and reci- 
tations begun within the first half-hour. This is as it 
should be. To take half a day to get started is not only 
a waste of time, but is demoralizing to the school, and 
shows the teacher to be lacking either in ability to organ- 
ize and manage, or devoid of the interest in his work 
which should prompt better preparation for the opening 
of the term. 

It is easier to form than reform. The pupils come to 
school on the first day expecting that the new teacher will 
The initiation of a have some plans of his own to intro- 
definite policy duce and they are usually very ready 

to cooperate. Anything that is reasonable in the way of 
a school routine or regulations can be put into effect at 
the beginning without difficulty. But let the teacher come 
without definite plans for these things, let the movement 
of classes and the calling and dismissing of school be 
haphazard, let the regulations be indefinite or poorly car- 
ried out for a few days or a week, and the habits and 



170 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

standards of the school have become more or less set in 
the wrong direction. And it then often causes friction 
and requires punishment to accomplish what would have 
been taken as a matter of course at the beginning of the 
term. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, 
and a little effective organization is better than much re- 
organization. 

The school routine is one of the most important matters 
connected with organization. By school routine is meant 
the various movements and activities 
in which the entire school or classes 
participate together. Illustrations of routine are, calling 
and dismissing the school, the passing of classes, the dis- 
tribution of wraps, materials, etc. All these things should 
follow a set routine, be done in the same way over and 
over until they become thoroughly automatic on the part 
of the pupils. They must become a part of the school 
habit, so well fixed that they "do themselves." To this 
end the routine adopted should be simple and natural. 
A complicated series of signals for calling a class to recite 
is unnecessary, wastes time, and is difficult to follow. 

A cumbersome system of signals, together with lack of 
executive ability was responsible for the following state 
An impossible ^^ affairs in one school. The teacher 

routine called, ''Third reader class!" One 

alert boy turned with his feet out in the aisle. The teacher 
continued, "Ready!" The boy stood up; several others 
turned ready to rise. "Stand!" Several started to the 
recitation seat. "Pass!" Those who started first had by 
this time reached their places, and the rest came straggling 
toward the front. "Be seated!" concluded the teacher, 
but nearly all had dropped down on the benches as they 
came up, and only a few were left to obey the order. 



ORGANIZATION 171 

What folly! And what injustice to a school! The sig- 
nals given for moving classes and the like should be the 
fewest and simplest possible, and then should be obeyed 
to the letter until obedience has become a habit. Com- 
mands that are disregarded are a constant training in 
carelessness and disobedience to duty, and always weaken 
the teacher's authority. 

The regulations of the school are not less important 
than its routine. No set of rules can be made to cover 
The regulations to ^^^ ^^^ questions of conduct that will 
be adopted arise in the school. Indeed an arbi- 

trary list of rules made and announced at the opening of 
a term is worse than useless, for it tends to antagonize the 
pupils and even to suggest misdemeanors that, otherwise, 
they might not think of. A list of the rules devised by 
an old New England schoolmaster contained seventy-five 
specific prohibitions or commands. The story is told that, 
on looking about the grounds one day, he discovered a 
pile of old bricks that had lain undisturbed for no one 
knew how long. But the schoolmaster, desiring to make 
sure that he had omitted nothing, went back to the list of 
rules and wrote as the seventy-sixth, "It is strictly for- 
bidden that any boy shall throw bricks at the chimney." 
And tradition tells that the chimney, which had stood un- 
molested during many years, was battered down within 
a week. 

In spite of the possible misuse of rules, however, it is 
necessary to have some regulations understood and 

obeyed in the school. It is probably 
The use of rules , ^ , 1 , 1 j 

best to have only a general under- 
standing at the opening of the term, like Nelson's famous, 
"England expects every man to do his duty !" Similarly 
the school expects every pupil to do his part toward 



172 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

making the school a success. From this platform as a 
standpoint, various regulations can be made and the ne- 
cessity for them shown as occasion arises. For example, 
the question of whispering is sure to arise early in the 
term, but better to take up the question when it does arise 
than to start out with rules on it. The matter of leaving 
the seats on various errands about the room will need 
to be decided, but it should be decided when it presents 
itself. The only danger at this point is in letting such 
questions get the start before they are taken up. The 
abuse of a privilege will rapidly grow into a habit, and 
misused privilege comes to be looked on as a right. 

No school is well organized until the matter of classifi- 
cation has been carefully worked out. To classify a 

Principles o£ rural- ^^^°°^ is to place the pupils in their 
school classifi- proper divisions, grades and classes. 

*^^*^°" It is impossible to lay down fixed 

rules for the classifying of rural schools, since they vary 
so greatly in size, advancement and curriculum. Yet a 
general outline may be given which will serve as a basis 
to be modified as required by each individual school. 

One-room rural schools can never be classified as rig- 
idly as town or consolidated schools. This arises first 
of all from the fact that in very few district schools are 
all the different grades represented. Particularly is this 
true in the smaller schools, which often consist of not 
more than eight or ten pupils. In consolidated schools 
the classification will be worked out much as in towns and 
cities. In the average district school of small size, not 
more than four or five of the eight grades constituting 
the full rural-school course will usually be represented. 
Proper classification is also rendered difficult because of 
the lax methods of promotion obtaining in most of the 



ORGANIZATION 173 

rural schools. Pupils are allowed to become very irregu- 
lar in their studies, far ahead in some and behind in 
others. Further, irregular attendance often makes it a 
hard matter to keep the classification even and regular 
after it has once been properly arranged. 

A school of the usual type which has all the eight years 
represented would, of course, consist of eight grades, one 
-,, J , for each year. The classification of 

school classifi- the school together with the studies to 

•^^^^^^ be pursued, would then be somewhat 

as follows : 

First school year — Primer and First Reader. Language, 
numbers, nature study, music taught orally. Hand- 
work, drawing, writing. 
Second school year — Second Reader. Other first year 
studies continued orally, with increasing emphasis on 
hand-work and nature study. 
Third school year — Third Reader (first half) with sup- 
plementary readings. Elementary arithmetic text, 
music reader. Pen and ink. Language and nature 
study, including hygiene, continued orally, hand-work. 
Fourth school year — Third Reader (second half) with 
supplementary readings. Elementary arithmetic, ele- 
mentary geography, including nature study, spelling- 
book, music reader, elementary language book, writing 
and drawing, hand-work. 
Fifth school year — Fourth Reader (first half) with sup- 
plementary readings. Elementary arithmetic (com- 
pleted), elementary geography (completed) including 
elements of agriculture, oral hygiene, language book, 
music reader, writing and drawing, spelling-book, 
hand-work. 
'Sixth school year — Fourth Reader (second half) with 



174 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

supplementary readings. Advanced geography, history 
stories, complete arithmetic, elementary physiology 
language book, spelling-book, music, writing and draw- 
ing, hand-work, elementary agriculture. 
Seventh school year — Fifth Reader (first half) with sup- 
plementary readings. Complete arithmetic, language 
and composition, geography, history, physiology, spell- 
ing-book, elementary agriculture, manual training, 
domestic science, music, drawing. 
Eighth school year — Fifth Reader (completed) with sup- 
plementary readings. Supplementary classics, arithme- 
tic, history, geography, elementary grammar and com- 
position, agriculture, manual training, domestic science, 
music, drawing. 

As the rural schools are at present organized, reading 
is probably the branch most commonly taken as a basis of 
The basis o£ classification. Upon this basis, if a pu- 

classification pil comes to school ready to begin the 

Fourth Reader, he should be entering on his fifth year at 
school, and should be pursuing the other studies listed for 
the fifth year, providing that he is even in his classification. 
Similarly, if he comes ready to begin the Third Reader, 
he is to be classified in the third year, and should regularly 
have the studies belonging to this year. If he is not even 
in his classification, as is often the case, it will, of course, 
be necessary to allow him to have studies belonging in 
two or more years. The course of study must not be al- 
lowed to hamper the pupil's development. It should, 
however, be the constant endeavor of the teacher to bring 
up the subjects that are behind, even at the expense of 
moving more slowly in those that are ahead, and in this 
way even up the classification. 



ORGANIZATION I75 

The classification here presented is, with slight modifi- 
cations, that in general use. But every teacher should 

become thoroughly familiar with the 
classification de- course of study and system of classifi- 
manded of the cation in his county or state. He 

should know offhand such points as 
the following whenever he requires to use them in classi- 
fying his particular school : 

(i) The studies, books and material for each school 
year. 

(2) The studies to be carried together at the same 
time. 

(3) How long each study is to be pursued, and when it 
is to be completed. 

(4) When the elementary and when the advanced text 
in each subject is to be introduced. 

(5) How many classes are to be formed in each gen- 
eral subject, such as arithmetic, language or reading. 

Only when the teacher is able to answer these questions 
accurately and quickly is he capable of classifying the 
-^ . . school correctly, or of telling what is 

met in classifi- wrong when a pupil is irregular in his 

*^^**°" classification. For example, if John 

Smith appears on the opening day with an advanced 
arithmetic in which he has reached square root, a Fifth 
Reader which he has not yet begun, an elementary lan- 
guage book, and a history that he has been over, but no 
geography or physiology, manifestly he is irregular in his 
classification. The teacher must know precisely in what 
this irregularity consists, and how to set at work to rem- 
edy it. Likewise if Susan Jones brings a new Third 
Reader, and along with this an elementary geography 
and an elementary arithmetic, but no language book, the 



176 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

teacher must know at once whether these are the right 
books to go together. It is ignorance of just such ques- 
tions as these that accounts for the poor classification 
found in many rural schools, and for much of the poor 
work that results. 

Closely related to the classification of the school is the 
matter of the daily program. This is one of the rural 
teacher's most puzzling problems, and a large measure of 
his success depends on his ability to make and follow a 
good program. The school in which the pupils do not 
know precisely what work is to be done and what recita- 
tions are heard at every hour of the day is a poorly organ- 
ized school and its slipshod methods show lack of execu- 
tive ability in the teacher. 

The program of the district school can not be organized 
as definitely and closely as that of the graded school, yet 
Principles under- there are certain principles underlying 
lying the program the making of the program that will 
hold for all schools. And the fact that the rural teacher 
is so crowded for time makes it all the more necessary 
that the program be well devised. 

It is evident that the hardest or most important studies 
should be placed in the best parts of the day, that is early 
in the forenoon and afternoon sessions. As most of our 
schools are now organized, the most important branch for 
the lower grades is reading. This should therefore be 
placed at the beginning of the session, or as near the be- 
ginning as possible. For the more advanced classes, 
arithmetic or language may be taken as the hardest study, 
and hence be given the best position. Other studies 
should be arranged in order of difficulty in gaining atten- 
tion and interest. 



ORGANIZATION 177 

It is difficult in a school which is irregular in its classi- 
fication to arrange a program so that every pupil may 
The sequence have time to prepare for each suc- 

of studies cessive recitation. The program 

should, if possible, provide for an alternation of study and 
recitation in such a way that the pupil studies each lesson 
shortly before he recites it. This is not so necessary in 
the higher grades; the seventh and eighth grades may 
even prepare for an early morning recitation before the 
close of school the preceding day, or in the evening at 
home. 

Care needs to be exercised that certain lines of study, 
such as arithmetic, geography, agriculture, or any other 
The distribution subject, do not receive more than their 
of time just share of time. A teacher who 

has a fad for number work, nature study, or any other 
branch, has a tendency to emphasize this subject at the ex- 
pense of others. Also, poor classification may sometimes 
result in more classes in some subjects than they deserve. 
One school of fourteen pupils had seven classes in spell- 
ing, when it ought to have had but two. Another had five 
classes in arithmetic, when there should have been but 
three. 

If a school is poorly classified in, say, its higher grades, 
this has a tendency to multiply the number of classes for 
Classes crowded these grades, and so give them more 
out than their just proportion of time. 

Likewise if a teacher enjoys better the work of either the 
higher grades or the lower grades, there is a temptation 
to give more than its rightful share of time to the more 
pleasant work to the injury of the other. Sometimes the 
program has so many classes that some of them get shut 



^78 BETTER RURAL' SCHOOLS 

out occasionally. In case this should occur it is usually 
best to leave out some of the more advanced virork rather 
than that of the beginners. A still better plan if the 
program is too badly crowded is to hear some of the 
more advanced classes on alternate days. 

Most rural schools have too many recitations. The 
average in many counties reaches nearly thirty a day. Of 
course it is utterly impossible to teach this number of 
classes and do them justice. The largest number of 
classes that should be attempted in any school is about 
twenty a day. 

Some of the chief causes producing the multiplicity of 
classes are as follows: (i) Poor correlation and classi- 
Causes producing hcation. Not infrequently separate 
too many classes classes in spelling could just as well 
be put together. Separate classes in arithmetic are often 
allowed when their work is only a few weeks or a month 
or two apart. And so with the other studies. The 
teacher should know how many years are to be put on 
a given text, and then try to arrange the distance between 
the classes on this basis ; e. g., three years are usually 
to be devoted to the complete arithmetic. Classes in arith- 
metic should not therefore be nearer together than one- 
third of the text, even when all grades are represented 
in the school. (2) Irregular attendance. Not infre- 
quently children are kept out of school to work for a few 
weeks, and then it is expected that new classes shall be 
formed for them on their return. This is unfair and 
should not be allowed. Parents should be urged to keep 
their children in school regularly, but in no case should 
the interests of the whole school be made to suffer 
through starting new classes for the irregular pupils. (3) 
Attendance of children below school age. Many states 



ORGANIZATION 179 

allow their children to enter school at five years of age. 
This is probably a full year too early. In spite of this fact, 
however, there is hardly a rural district in most states in 
which children are not sent to school before reaching the 
minimum age. This should never be allowed. It is bad 
for the child, and usually results in the necessity for or- 
ganizing new classes for these beginners. If the board 
will not exclude children under age, the teacher should 
at once report to the county superintendent, whose duty 
it is to see that the school laws are obeyed in his county. 
The proper correlation of subjects in teaching will do 
much to render unnecessary the multiplicity of classes 

Correlation a rem- ^°^"^ ^" "^^"^ ^^^^^ '^^°°^^- ^P^"" 
cdy for multiplicity ing can often be taught more effect- 
of classes j^gjy jj^ ^^^ regular work of other 

classes than in any other way. Language work and com- 
position find their best basis in nature study, geography, 
hygiene, agriculture, and similar practical subjects of the 
course, and can be so combined with them as to render 
the teaching of both more effective. The arithmetic les- 
son may often be based on the work going on in manual 
training or domestic science, and time saved for other 
work. Indeed, the principle of correlation, already sug- 
gested in a former chapter, will, if properly applied, re- 
lieve the overcrowding of the program and increase the 
efficiency of the teaching. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

I. Is it reasonably safe to concede that a teacher who 
has made a success of a country school will be successful 
in the same grade of work in a town school? Is there 



l8o BETTER RURAL' SCHOOLS 

any difference in standards to be taken into account ? In 
methods ? 

2. Have you observed schools that were unsuccessful 
because of faulty organization ? Can you point out where 
the difficulty lay? 

3. Have you observed differences in "first days" il- 
lustrating the points made in the chapter? What is your 
own plan for opening day ? How much time do you spend 
familiarizing yourself with the school records before the 
terms open. 

4. Have you ever found the records left by a former 
teacher so faulty as to be of little service in organizing 
the new term ? What is your opinion of the professional 
ethics of a teacher who will leave defective records? 

5. Make a full statement of what you consider the 
best routine for a one-room rural school ; that is, a plan 
for calling and dismissing school, passing classes, hand- 
ling wraps and supplies, and all else that should be in- 
cluded under the term routine. Also, discuss what regu- 
lations should be adopted to govern the conduct in the 
school. 

6. Have you observed that certain forms of disorder, 
such as whispering, leaving the seats on errands, etc., 
have a tendency to grow ? What is to be done to prevent 
them from becoming school nuisances? 

7. Can you name, offhand, the studies and texts to be 
used in each grade of your school? If not, do you know 
where to go for such information? 

8. What measures have you ever tried to reduce the 
number of recitations in your school ? Can this be done in 
many rural schools without injustice? Or is it an in- 
justice to all for the teacher to attempt to teach twenty- 
five or more classes a day? 



CHAPTER XII 



MANAGEMENT 



This is the day of scientific management. Executive 
capacity, or the ability to manage, is at a premium in 
every line of occupation. In the business world almost 
fabulous salaries are paid to those who are able success- 
fully to direct the activities of important commercial en- 
terprises. These men do not themselves make or sell 
goods; it is their part to supply the best possible condi- 
tions under which goods may be produced and sold ; they 
are managers. Likewise, in the educational system, the 
highest honors and salaries go to those who are able to 
act as managers of a system of schools. And here, as in 
the commercial world, it is the business of the manager 
to supply favorable conditions under which the work of 
the organization shall go on. 

In the rural schools, as we have already seen, the 

teacher is the sole manager of the school. The school 

T» , ^ , , board can not well take part in this 

Rural teacher s . ^ . 

sole responsibility function, and the county supermtend- 

in management ^^t is unable to be of material assist- 
ance. The responsibility is on the teacher alone, and the 
problems are many and difficult. The reputation and suc- 
cess of the teacher as measured by the general public are 
gaged largely by his ability to manage. This counts with 
most patrons for more than even the matter of organiza- 

i8i 



i82 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

tion or teaching, for it is more easily understood and 
judged. The classification and grading of a school may 
be faulty, its program poorly planned, or the methods 
employed in instruction ineffective, and the public know 
little about it. But let the management of the school 
prove weak, let the teacher fail properly to control the 
school, or let his methods of government be such as to 
produce friction, and the whole community soon know of 
the trouble. If the school machine creaks in its running, 
the creaking is sure to be heard and to attract unfavorable 
attention. 

We may organize a school once for all at the beginning 
of a term, but the school must be managed day after day 
What managing a ^s long as it runs. For no school, be 
school means it ever so well organized, or the teach- 

ing ever so good, will manage itself. This requires great 
skill and constant alertness on the part of the teacher. 

Managing a school means much more than governing 
it, in the sense of keeping order. To manage a school is 
so to direct it as to obtain the largest educational returns 
with the least possible friction and waste of time and 
effort. In a well managed school each pupil will be doing 
his work in such a way as to gain the greatest good for 
himself, without interfering with the work or welfare of 
others. It is the business of the teacher, as manager of 
the school, to provide such conditions that these results 
are obtained. 

This is not easy. A great part of the proverbial weari- 
ness and fag of teachers comes from the strain of man- 
aging the school. It is not the strain of actual teaching, 
but the worry arising from responsibility, tension, or 
conflict in management that results in frayed nerves and 
exhausted bodies. For the sake of efficiency in the work 



'- MANAGEMENT 183 

of the school, therefore, and for his own welfare and 
happiness, as well, the teacher needs to master and put 
into practise the principles of good management. 

Lying at the basis of all successful management is the 
spirit of cooperation. A school can not be forced or 
Spirit of coopera- driven against its will without great 
tion necessary loss in efficiency. Energy and thought 

which the teacher should devote to instruction must be 
expended in compulsion. Effort and attention which 
should be given by the pupils to their studies are directed 
to misdemeanors or resistance. It is impossible to gain 
good results while thus working at cross-purposes. A 
spirit of antagonism is fatal to progress on the part of 
the pupils and to growth and efficiency on the part of 
the teacher. 

This does not mean that the control of the school 
must be lax and that discipline and order shall fail in 
order to keep the good-will of the pupils. On the con- 
trary, nothing is more certain to forfeit the pupils' respect 
and good-will for a teacher than weakness and uncer- 
tainty in government. Children expect the teacher to 
control the school, and hold him in contempt if he does 
not. 

But there is a great difference in the way this control 
is manifested. One teacher, in governing the school, 
causes friction, hard feeling and 
Cooperation refers antagonism; another teacher, by a 
control different method, not only obtains 

better control of the school, but also 
holds the good-will and respect of the pupils. The dif- 
ference lies largely in the ability of the second teacher 
to win the cooperation of the school, whereas the first 
teacher has to depend on the force of authority. 



i84 BETTER RURAL! SCHOOLS 

The foundation of cooperation is the realization on 
the part of both the teacher and the pupils that the school 
is really the pupils' school, and not the teacher's school 
nor the board's school. When once they come to see 
that poor work or wrong behavior in the school is harm- 
ing their school, and not the teacher, their interest in the 
school will increase and their attitude toward it will 
change. 

The children can not be made to feel an ownership 

in the school merely by lecturing to them about it, nor 

n . . , , by explaining to them their loss when 

Principles of con- •'. ^ ° . , 

trol to come from thmgs go wrong m the school. They 

the school must arrive at this idea in a very con- 

crete and practical way. For example, the teacher feels 
that certain regulations should be adopted. In putting 
these regulations into operation, he must avoid giving 
the impression that such regulations are made because of 
any whim or notion of the teacher himself. He should 
rather seek to show that such regulations are made be- 
cause the work and success of the school demand them. 
Likewise, corrections, rebukes, punishments, are not to 
gratify any love of the teacher for these things, but be- 
cause the success of the school requires them. 

One of the greatest foes of cooperation in the school 
is scolding. The teacher is subject to many trials and 
The futility of provocations, and is often worn and 

scolding fagged. And, says President Henry 

Churchill King, "It is hard to be decent when we are 
fagged." The result is, that many teachers are scolders, 
growing into the habit gradually, and finding themselves 
in its grip before they are aware. There are two bad 
things about scolding: one is that it arouses antagonism 
and renders a spirit of cooperation impossible ; the other 



MANAGEMENT 185 

is, that it ultimately does no good. For children easily be- 
come hardened to faultfinding and criticism, or they be- 
come sullen under their sting, and accept them like any 
other disagreeable thing of life, without taking them too 
seriously. Said one schoolgirl, "We would rather have 
Miss White scold us for half an hour than to have Miss 
Gray look displeased." 

It is a great accomplishment to be able to correct, re- 
buke or reprove in a spirit of entire friendliness. Many 
can not do this. There are those who are unable to dif- 
fer with us even on matters of opinion or belief without 
bearing a personal grudge because of these differences. 
Two neighbors of this type, one an ardent Democrat and 
the other as strong a Republican, were good friends ex- 
cept at the time of election campaigns, when they ceased 
all neighboring together and would hardly speak to each 
other. The teacher needs to cultivate that breadth of 
personality and warmth of sympathy that will enable 
him to correct a wayward child, even with great severity 
if necessary, keeping his heart so warm toward the cul- 
prit all the time that no tinge of antagonism creeps in. 
One may learn to abhor an offense while he loves the 
offender. 

One of the most valuable lessons the school has for 
the child is the lesson of obedience. If the spirit of co- 
Good management operation obtains in the school, 
secures obedience the child's obedience is to the 
needs and demands of the school itself. These needs 
and demands are expressed in the rules and regulations 
set forth by the teacher, but they come no less from 
the necessities of school. 

The term obedience is here used not alone to signify 
tonformity to the wishes or requirements of the teacher, 



i86 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

but also to the regulations and routine of the school. 
If a certain set of signals has been agreed on for the pass- 
ing of classes, for calling and dismissing school, then this 
routine is to be followed absolutely and exactly. If cer- 
tain regulations have been adopted relative to v\^hisper- 
ing, leaving the seats, or other privileges, then these 
regulations should be obeyed both in spirit and in letter. 

Rules that are not obeyed are far worse than no rules 
at all, for they beget contempt for law and authority. 

-v. , ,. , Better a thousand times a few simple 

Disobedience be- . ,...,, 

gets contempt regulations well complied with than 

for law ^ complex set which can not be en- 

forced. The child who has learned in the school the les- 
son of obedience to authority and the rights of others 
has been given one of the most valuable elements of edu- 
cation. The child who has had his schooling in a school 
where the lessons of obedience were not learned, has 
incorporated in his education an element of weakness 
and danger. 

The only way to learn lessons of obedience is to obey, 
just as the only way to learn moral truths is to live them. 
Obedience learned and the only way to learn pa- 
only by obeying triotism is to live and act patri- 
otically. The difference between theory and prac- 
tise in these things was well illustrated in an incident that 
recently occurred in a certain rural school. The morning 
opening exercises were being conducted. As the roll was 
called, each child responded with a patriotic verse or se- 
lection. A patriotic song was sung, and then all stood 
and together saluted the flag that hung at the front of 
the room. It was a beautiful exercise, well performed. 
But the trouble was, that within the next half-hour an- 
archy prevailed in this room in the presence of the flag 



MANAGEMENT 187 

that had so recently been sahited. Law was violated, the 
rights of others were disregarded, and authority was 
trampled upon. The lesson in patriotism was negatived 
by the conduct of the school. These children needed, 
more than they needed anything else, to learn the lesson 
of obedience to authority. 

Good school management requires that the teacher shall 
be uniform in requirement from day to day. He must 
Good management "O^ ^o-^ay tolerate or take lightly an 
requires uniformity offense that yesterday he took seri- 
ously and punished. He must not be subject to moods 
and whims, making the control of the school grow chiefly 
out of his own attitude and feeling. He must himself 
obey constantly from day to day the standards he has 
set up for the control of the school, and should no more 
suffer himself to be lax in requiring obedience to rules, 
regulations and standards, than he would suffer his pupils 
to disobey in these things. 

This is a very severe demand to place on the teacher, 
but it is well worth striving for. It is worth while to be 
able to live above one's whims and moods, to be equable 
and pleasant no matter how one feels, and to be kindly 
insistent when one would prefer to let the wrong act go 
by. Such heroic training of one's self will give poise 
and balance to the character as will few other things, and 
will prove an acquisition well worth having outside the 
schoolroom. 

The necessity for persistence and uniformity on the 
part of the teacher has been demonstrated to every 
^ , c teacher in the tendency of schools to 

schools to "run "run down" if given a chance. On 

^^^ starting a new term, the teacher be- 

gins with certain ideals of management and control. For 



i88 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

a little time all goes well, but soon the teacher sees an 
increasing laxness in certain matters. Whispering is 
growing, obedience to signals is less prompt, playing 
roughly in the schoolroom at intermissions begins. It is 
just at this point that the strong teacher wins and the 
weak teacher fails. The strong teacher calmly and 
firmly insists on the school's living up to the require- 
ments ; and the school comes back to them. The weak 
teacher does not know how, or has not the force to 
check the downward tendency, and things go from bad 
to worse. Eternal vigilance, and an immovable kindly 
steadfastness of purpose are the price of uniformity of 
control in the school. 

No personal quality is more in demand in the school- 
room than self-control on the part of the teacher. He 

« ,, , who can not control himself should 

Self-control neces- 

sary to manage- not expect to control others. Every 

^^^^ exhibition of uncontrolled temper is 

a confession of weakness, and lowers the teacher in the 
respect of the school. Fits of anger indulged in by the 
teacher engender a feeling akin to contempt on the part 
of the pupils. 

A group of girls just graduated from high school 
were discussing their teachers, and commenting on their 
characteristics. One of the group remarked: "Now 
there is our principal; maybe you think we didn't make 
things interesting for him! We girls used to meet to- 
gether evenings to devise ways to torment him." On 
being asked why they had a pick at this particular teacher, 
she replied: "Oh, we really had nothing against him; 
we only wanted to see him 'perform,' and he never dis- 
appointed us. We were willing to take any sort of 
scolding just to get him started upon a tirade." 



MANAGEMENT 189 

This man had no right to occupy the position of 
teacher. One who can be led to "perform" at the beck 
of a group of mischievous pupils lacks the self-control 
necessary to the respect and cooperation of his school. 
Further, the heat of anger clouds the judgment and 
makes fairness and justice impossible. What teacher 
who is subject to fits of temper has not said or done things 
under the spur of anger which seemed perfectly justi- 
fiable and right at the moment, but which caused regret 
and shame when later looked back on! Or what such 
teacher has not, when he has had opportunity for calm 
thought, been obliged to reverse some rule, demand or 
threat voiced in a moment when self-control was lost ! 

Nor are teachers possessing this lack of poise and 
judgment always fair enough to take back a hasty rule 
An example of °^ demand even when convinced of 

hasty judgment its injustice. A teacher in a western 
rural school who was accustomed to "perform" on slight 
provocation had been annoyed by caricatures of herself 
drawn on the blackboard during her absence from the 
room. One day a worse drawing than usual appeared. 
The teacher angrily turned to the school and demanded, 
"Who did that?" No one replied. Again the teacher 
asked for the culprit, and was met with silence. This 
angered her still more and she issued her ultimatum : 
"This school will get no more recesses until some one 
tells me who drew that picture." Of course no one 
would tell, so recesses were cut off, and the school grew 
sullen from injustice. Neither side would give in, and 
friction developed into rebellion. The upshot of it was 
that the school board ordered the teacher to grant the 
school its recesses, and the teacher quit the school in 
humiliation and defeat. 



I90 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Self-control on the part of the teacher must also ex- 
tend to his dealing with the patrons of the school. Pa- 
Control with refer- rents are not always wise or just in 
ence to complaints matters concerning their children. 
Happy is the teacher who is not now and then visited 
by irate fathers and mothers who claim that their per- 
fectly peaceable child has been assaulted on the way to 
school, or that his dinner has been stolen, or his books 
or pencils appropriated by other children. When such 
a situation arises, the teacher possessing tact or self-con- 
trol will satisfy the parent, and bring the interview to 
an end in friendship and good-will. The teacher who 
lacks control will be likely to bring on a stormy inter- 
view that decides nothing, and which leaves bitter feel- 
ings to rankle after the trivial cause of the interview is 
long forgotten. 

No discussion on school management can point out 
all the problems that will arise in the course of a term, 
"Danger points'* ^^^ ^^^ unexpected is likely to appear 
in management at any moment. There are, however, 

certain problems that present themselves in most schools, 
and may therefore be called the "constant" problems, or 
the "danger points" in school management. 

One of these is boisterous play in the schoolroom dur- 
ing intermissions. There are many reasons why children 
Boisterous play in should not be rough and noisy in the 
the schoolroom schoolroom at intermissions. The 
first of these reasons relates to the effects of what the 
psychologist calls suggestion. Any part of our environ- 
ment comes to suggest to us the activities that we per- 
form in connection with this environment. The dining- 
room suggests eating ; the church, reverence and worship ; 
our study table, concentration and effort; and so on 



MANAGEMENT 191 

throughout the whole circle of the objects and places 

with which we are most familiar. 

Now if the schoolroom is used solely as a study place 

and as a workshop for our lessons, it will come to sug- 

_, ,, . „ p-est these things to us and make it 

The "suggestion" ^ . . , 1 ,1 • ^u- 

carries over into easy to study and work when m this 

study hours environment. If, on the other hand, 

the schoolroom is used as a playground or a gymnasium, 
a place where noisy play, shouting and hilarious laugh- 
ter are the rule, it will come to suggest these things to 
us, and make it harder to settle down to serious be- 
havior and sober study. In many schools no talking 
except in a conversational tone is permitted during in- 
termissions, and no moving about except in a quiet or- 
derly way. This regulation is a hardship on no one, 
and tends to make the government of the school much 
easier. 

A second reason why children should not play in the 
schoolroom at intermissions is, that they should be out- 
Play should be of-doors in the fresh air. They 
out-of-doors should also have the greater freedom 
and opportunity for exercise given by the playground. 
In very stormy weather it may be impossible to play out- 
of-doors. It is then that the resourceful teacher will 
propose and help carry through some of the more quiet 
games, which are suited to the indoor play hour. In this 
way he can not only teach new games to the children, 
but can himself come to know them better and win more 
fully their confidence and friendship. 

Whispering and note-writing are another schoolroom 
danger. Communicating with others by means of oral 
or written speech is so natural and harmless an impulse 
that at first thought it seems strange that it should need 



192 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

to be classed as a schoolroom misdemeanor. Yet even 
very harmless impulses sometimes require restraint. 
Bookkeepers at adjoining desks do not converse as they 
add columns of figures; telegraph operators do not talk 
while they are sending messages ; the musician does not 
whisper to a friend as he plays. These things all require 
individual attention. So with the work of the school. 
Lessons must be learned through application and concen- 
tration. Constant interruption is a serious and unneces- 
sary waste of time. And besides this, the child needs to 
learn self-control ; he needs to learn to be quiet and keep 
his thoughts to himself, as well as to express them. 

Nor does it help matters if children are permitted to 
whisper "about the lesson." This is precisely what they 
Whispering "about should not need to do if the assign- 
the lessons" ment has been properly made and the 

child has given attention to the teacher's directions. In 
addition, such a plan is sure to lead the child to lack of 
frankness. Other things than the lesson will be discussed, 
and the moral sense of the child be dulled by this de- 
ception. Whispering during study time should be re- 
duced to the lowest possible minimum. 

Note-writing is even a more insidious danger in the 
school than whispering, for it is harder to detect, and it 
No truce with ' ^^^ greater possibilities of evil. Notes 
note-writing can be passed slyly from desk to 

desk, or left in books, or delivered personally on the pre- 
text of some errand, and even the alert teacher finds it 
hard to discover the culprit. Not infrequently, also, 
school notes contain improper language or suggestion 
which the writer would not dare to convey in oral speech. 
Note-writing is so unnecessary to the work of the school 



MANAGEMENT 193 

and contains so many possibilities of harm that it should 

be as completely eliminated as possible. 

Unnecessary questions and moving aljoui the room 

should be reduced to a minimum. Ability in manage- 

TT ment is shown nowhere better than 

Unnecessary con- . 

fusion indicates m the power to foresee the necessi- 
poor management ties of the school and so provide for 
them that unnecessary interruptions shall not occur. 
Nine out of ten of the questions commonly asked in the 
rural school could be forestalled by taking care of the 
details of lesson assignments, the matter of pencils, 
books, note-books and the like. A full supply of all the 
latter should be had by every pupil, and no borrowing 
be allowed. The same kind of care and attention to de- 
tails will render unnecessary most of the passing about 
the room by the pupils during school time. 

Questions are sometimes asked just for the sake of 
asking them, and children wish to leave their seats for 
A cure for the sake of the change and the rest 

"questions" from sitting. They are not to be 

blamed for this very natural desire, but it can be grati- 
fied in a better way. Let the teacher take two or three 
minutes in the middle of the session, have the windows 
and doors thrown open, and every one march around 
the room to music, or go through a set of calisthenic exer- 
cises. This will afford the needed change and relaxa- 
tion for the whole school. The teacher must then kindly 
but firmly insist that no unnecessary interruptions shall 
occur. 

Injury to public property should be carefully guarded. 
Children can very early be taught principles of justice 
and honesty toward others, and the school offers excel- 



194 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

lent opportunities for such lessons. If school property 

is injured either wantonly or accidentally it is evident 

_ . ^ , ,. that the first thing to do is to repair 

Injury to publxc . 

property to be the damage. The child should be 

made good made to see that the taxpayers of the 

district have supplied the schoolhouse and equipment for 

the use of the school, but that these things belong to the 

district. In one rural school a boy w^as found to have 

marred a newly decorated wall of the school building. 

He was sent for a workman to come and repair the wall, 

and the bill was presented to the boy and paid by him 

out of his own earnings. The boy learned through this 

incident a practical lesson in business honesty, which 

could never have been taught him theoretically. 

Our people are sadly lacking as a nation in the respect 
for public property. There are those who will ruth- 
American tendency ^^^sly deface public buildings, parks, 
toward vandalism or even monuments in order to 
to obtain a little souvenir to carry away. Others 
will commit such acts of vandalism wantonly. The most 
effective cure for these things lies not so much in lec- 
tures on morals and ethics, as in inculcating practical 
lessons in morals and ethics by making them a part of the 
conduct of the children in the school, the community and 
the home. The child must learn that the first step in 
either repentance or reparation is, so far as it is possible, 
to make good the injury. 

The question of morality is insistent in every school. 
The matters which have just been discussed are of such 
Children's morals nature that they apply more or less 
to be guarded generally to the entire school. But 

some of the most difficult problems of management grow 
out of the occasional case of immorality. It is an excep- 



MANAGEMENT 195 

tional school which does not have some child who uses 
profane or improper speech, or whose conduct does not 
in some other way suggest immorality. The pure-minded 
child should be protected from this moral contagion. 
One such center of immoral influence in the school, if 
left unchecked, may spread until the whole school is 
contaminated. 

The detection and prevention of such influences is one 
of the teacher's most difficult tasks. The teacher must 
not be suspicious and spying in his attitude toward the 
pupils ; but, on the other hand, he must not be blind or 
deaf to what is going on. He must be thoroughly alert 
to what is taking place not only in the schoolroom, but 
also on the playground. He must know the morals of 
his pupils if he is to protect the innocent and reform the 
wayward ; and this constitutes both an opportunity and 
an obligation. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. Counting up all the acknowledged failures among 
teachers you have known, were most of them failures in 
management ? Is it possible that some fail in instruction, 
but their failure is not so easily discovered? Do some 
fail in instruction because they first fail in management? 

2. Judging from your observation, what are the most 
troublesome points in the management of a rural school ? 
Can you suggest how such troubles may be avoided? 

3. What, in your judgment, is responsible for the at- 
titude of so many pupils who seem to look on the 
teacher as a natural enemy, and feel it a personal tri- 
umph if they succeed in playing some trick or committing 
a misdemeanor without being discovered? What is the 
remedy ? 



tg6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

4. Do you agree with the position taken on scolding? 
Does the habit have a tendency to grow on a teacher? 
What is a good substitute? 

5. Do you find it difficult to be uniform from day to 
day in your requirements and government? Can you re- 
late any inequalities to lowered vitality or impaired 
health? To bad nerves? 

6. Did you ever go to school to a teacher who had fits 
of temper? If so, did the school look on exhibitions of 
temper as a weakness and lose respect for the teacher 
because of them? 

7. Do you believe in corporal punishment? If not, 
what is your substitute? Is sarcasm or ridicule to be 
preferred to whipping? Should a child usually be pun- 
ished before the school (effect of making a martyr of 
him) ? Should punishment take place while teacher or 
pupil is angry? What are your tests of the effectiveness 
of punishment? 

8. Do you know your legal rights as fixed by the laws 
of your state in governing and punishing a pupil in your 
school ? Some states do not define the teacher's rights in 
detail, but simply say the teacher stands in loco parentis 
to the pupil. What powers are thus given? 



CHAPTER XIII 



GOOD TEACHING 



Important and necessary as good organization and 

management are in the school, they can never be an end 

rr. ,-• .t- !-• 1- in themselves. Both exist only to pro- 
Teacning the nign- . , , ... . i • i 7 

est function of Vide the conditions under which teach- 

the school i^g j^a,y go on. Teaching, the actual 

instruction and guidance of children in their learning and 
development, is the ultimate purpose for which we erect 
our schoolhouses, organize our schools and pay our 
school taxes. And no matter how excellent the building 
and equipment, how perfect the organization of the 
school, or how skilful its management, these all fail of 
their aim if they are not crowned by good teaching. The 
true teacher will therefore always have before him a 
triple ideal for his school — careful organization, efficient 
management, arid good teaching ; but the greatest of these 
is teaching. 

Good teaching requires first of all that the teacher 
shall meet the children on their own plane, be able to put 
Meeting the child himself in the child's place and look 
on his own plane at the problems and difficulties of 
learning through the eyes and mind of a child. Children 
do not know how to study, for study is an art and has 
to be learned the same as any other art. When the chil- 
dren first enter school they are fresh from the work and 
the play of home life, accustomed to deal with real tasks 

197 



198 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

and concrete objects. We place in their hands books full 
of symbols of which they know nothing, and dealing 
with lines of thought unfamiliar to them. We tell them 
to get their lessons, but they do not know how. And 
even after they have learned to recognize words and 
their meanings, the process of gathering and unifying 
the thought of a printed page is difficult. Those of us 
who have studied a foreign language have not forgot- 
ten how possible it is to know all the separate words of 
a paragraph or page, and yet find great difficulty in col- 
lecting the thought of the whole. 

How often children say to the teacher, "I don't know 
how to study this lesson." Or, "I don't understand how 
Need of teaching ^^ begin on this." Every such confes- 
how to study sion is in some sense an indictment of 

the teacher, one of the chief of whose functions is 
to show the child how to study. It would do many 
teachers good to try an experiment sometimes given to 
college classes in psychology. The students are given 
slips of paper on which is printed an easy story consist- 
ing of about two hundred words. Each student is to 
read this story aloud as fast as he can with good ex- 
pression. The average time required is about seventy- 
five seconds. Next, the class is given similar slips with 
another easy story of the same length. But this second 
story is printed in reverse order from the bottom of the 
page upward, and without capitalization or punctuation. 
The students are to read the story aloud, the same as the 
first one, as rapidly as possible. The average time re- 
quired for the second story is nearly five minutes, and 
the reading sounds for all the world like a First-Reader 
pupil puzzling out unfamiliar words. We often forget 



GOOD TEACHING 199 

that the page of a book is as new to the child as the 
reversed page is to the college students. 

The teachers in the elementary schools of Germany give 
a large proportion of their time, especially in the low^er 
The German grades,, to showing the children how 

method to study the lesson assigned. New 

words are learned, difficult points explained, important 
sections or divisions noted, and the whole method of 
work to be followed is suggested or outlined. How far 
this is ahead of our very common custom of saying, 
"Take the next two pages," and leaving the children to 
flounder helplessly in the dark when they come to study 
the lesson. 

Good teaching inspires confidence and courage in the 
pupils. Nothing is to be gained by telling children that 
Good teaching en- they are dull or backward. Prob- 
courages the child ably four out of five laggards 
are failing more from discouragement than lack of 
ability. A thoughtless teacher was one day called by 
an uplifted hand to the desk of a glum-looking boy. 
Joe was having trouble again with his examples. "O 
Joe," complained the teacher, "you are so dull! I 
am afraid you will never learn arithmetic." Now this 
was precisely what Joe himself feared, and the judgment 
of the teacher only drove the conviction more deeply into 
the soul of the disheartened boy. What Joe needed was 
sympathy and encouragement, and a teacher wise enough 
to find out the faulty place in his reasoning and to help 
remedy it. An army or a football team which enters a 
conflict expecting defeat is already half beaten, and a 
pupil who starts on a lesson sure he can not master it 
has already failed. 



200 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

The teacher should be able to radiate good cheer, con- 
fidence and encouragement as radium discharges energy, 
The value of without appreciably diminishing the 

good cheer supply. The schoolroom ought to be 

the brightest and happiest place anywhere to be found. 
For the feelings and emotions lie very close to our in- 
tellectual powers, and the full capacity of our minds 
can never be called into play except under the stimulus 
of belief in ourselves and happiness in our work. The 
teacher must know how to render sufficient help to set 
the powers of the child at work, but must not do the work 
himself, and thus leave no effort or victory for the pupil. 
It is possible to do too much for the child just as it is 
possible to do too little ; it is easy for the teacher to re- 
cite for a backward or poorly prepared pupil and save 
him the trouble. The best teachers are therefore not 
those who do most for the pupil, but those who lead 
the pupils to do most for themselves. 

Good teaching requires interest and enthusiasm on the 
part of the teacher. These are of first importance, for 
The contagion they are contagious. Nothing can 

of interest take their place. No amount of learn- 

ing, no determination to do one's duty, no display of 
false or forced vivacity will answer. The teacher who 
lacks a true and deep-seated interest in his work is a 
dead teacher, no matter how many degrees he may hold. 
And through what we call the influence of suggestion, 
this deadness of spirit is felt by the class and tends to 
shape their attitude toward study. It is safe to say that 
no class is ever found giving themselves whole-heartedly 
and gladly to a subject which their teacher has no inter- 
est in teaching, nor is a lifeless class possible with an 
enthusiastic and inspiring teacher. 



GOOD TEACHING 201 

The skilful teacher keeps close to the every-day inter- 
ests and experiences of the pupils. He does not substi- 
The point of con- ^ute rules and definitions for real ob- 
tact with the child jects and experiences. He uses the 
text-book in his teaching, but is not hampered and bound 
down by it. He illustrates difficult points by applying them 
to the immediate activities and knowledge of his pupils. 
This point of view is illustrated in the case of a ten-year- 
old schoolgirl who was one day walking with her father 
along the brow of a hill on one side of which nestled a 
beautiful little valley. The father said, "See, Marian, 
what a pretty valley !" Marian stopped short and gazed 
at the valley. After a moment she exclaimed, "So that 
is a valley ! Why, we have had valleys in our geography 
at school, but I would not have known that this was a 
valley." These poor children had committed definitions 
of valleys, and spelled all the words relating to valleys 
and learned the names of many far-away valleys and 
answered the questions out of the geography, but the 
half-dozen valleys that lay within sight of the school- 
room windows were unknown and unrecognized by them. 
So dead and dry and senseless may teaching become ! 

The teacher's point of viezv has much to do with his 
skill in teaching. It makes all the difference in the world 
whether one is teaching arithmetic, or teaching children. 
And it is much easier to teach arithmetic than to teach 
children. Professor Dewey made this point clear when 
he said, "When the teacher comes before his class he 
should have his subject-matter so well in hand that it is 
second nature to him ; he can then give the best of his 
power and enthusiasm to the work of interpreting the 
pupils, — to studying their needs, leading their thought, 
and developing their interest." 



202 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

One teacher, fresh from a normal school, complained 
to the superintendent that the children of her school were 
Effects of point below the average and not normal 
of view children in their studies. The super- 

intendent asked her the reason for her conclusion, and 
she replied: "You see it is like this; I have been at 
the state normal school, and there we were required to 
work out lesson plans and outlines for all branches we 
were to teach. Now I have been using those outlines and 
lesson plans just as we were given them, and the chil- 
dren are unable to understand or do the work." When' 
it was suggested to her that she reconstruct her outlines' 
and plans until they fitted the actual boys and girls of 
her school, instead of expecting the boys and girls to fit 
into ready-made plans, the idea seemed new to her. But 
this girl had the willingness and ability to change her 
point of view, and she is to-day a successful teacher of 
hoys and girls, whereas she was formerly an inefficient 
teacher of grammar, geography and arithmetic. 

Teaching is done chiefly in the recitation. This is the 
teacher's point of contact with his pupils ; here he meets 
them face to face and mind to mind. It is in the recita- 
tion that the teacher succeeds in stimulating and inspir- 
ing to aims and ambitions that lead to a full and helpful 
education, or else fails to feed the fires of ambition and 
thus leaves the child indifferent to training and self-de- 
velopment. The teacher's success or failure in the reci- 
tation is therefore the ultimate measure of his value to 
the school. 

Although recitations must differ greatly for different 
subjects and in different grades, yet certain fundamental 
Principles govern- requisites apply to all recitations, 
ing the recitation There are a few vital tests by which 



GOOD TEACHING 203 

the teacher can estimate his own success, and the effi- 
ciency of the recitation. 

Does the recitation grip the interest of the class f Are 
all mentally alert, and giving attention because the inter- 
est of the recitation, and not the teacher, compels them. 
The writer has elsewhere said : "A recitation without in- 
terest is a dead recitation. Because it possesses no life 
it can not lead to growth. Nothing can take the place of 
interest. Fear may for a time drive to work, but it does 
not result in development. Only interest can bring all 
the powers and capacities of the child into play. Hence 
the teacher's first and greatest problem in the recitation 
is the problem of interest. To obtain interest, he must 
use every resource at his command. This does not mean 
that he is to bid for the children's interest with sensational 
methods and cheap devices. This is not the way to gain 
true interest. It means, rather, that he is to offer to the 
class subject-matter suited to their age and experience, 
and presented in a way adapted to their capacity and 
understanding ; that he is to have all conditions surround- 
ing the recitation as favorable as possible ; and that he is 
himself to be constantly a source of interest and enthusi- 
asm."i 

Does the recitation move with snap and vivacity f This 
does not mean noisily and after a scatter-brained fashion 
The recitation that does not give opportunity for 

must have life calm thought and mastery; it rather 

refers to the continuity of thought and action necessary 
to preserve an unbroken line of interest. A successful 
story or play must have what we call "movement." 
Something must be taking place, so that interest and at- 
tention are sustained. Nothing is more uninspiring than 

^ The Recitation, page thirty. 



204 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

a recitation that drags, with pauses and breaks caused 
by the unpreparedness, or lack of skill or interest on the 
part of the teacher. A fair sample of this type of reci- 
tation was heard by the writer in a western rural school. 
It was a Fourth-Reader class reading Paul Revere's 
Ride. The class was called, and came sauntering aim- 
lessly down to the recitation bench. The teacher was 
sitting listlessly behind her desk. A little girl offered the 
teacher her text, which was accepted without recognition 
of the courtesy. The teacher said, "John, you may read 
the first stanza." John arose lazily and read it with no 
show of enthusiasm. "Mary, read the next." Mary read 
the next. "Joe, you may read the next." Joe complied. 
So they went on until five stanzas had thus been read. 
This completed the assignment. The time was not yet 
up, so they read the lesson through again after the same 
fashion, with no comment, suggestion or explanation. 
The teacher assigned the next lesson, and the class was 
dismissed. Not a word had been said about the historical 
setting of the incident, not a thrill of patriotism had been 
aroused, and not an appeal had been made to the imagina- 
tion. The whole lesson was a dismal failure, a bore to 
the teacher and an imposition on helpless childhood. 
Shame on such teaching and such a teacher! Better a 
thousand times give these children the stirring poem to 
read by themselves than under the stifling influence of 
such a personality; or even turn them out on the play- 
ground or set them at work in their homes rather than 
subject them to the benumbing influence of such spiritless 
instruction. 

Are the zvhole class taking part in the recitation ? This 
means not alone in reciting when they are called on, but 



GOOD TEACHING 205 

all the time. Or, on the other hand, do those who are 
not for the moment reciting, wander in their thought, and 
Every pupil must really take no part in the development 
take part of the lesson? The questions asked 

by the teacher, the explanations given, or the answers 
rendered by the one reciting must be made to command 
the thought of all. If the attention lags and the attitude 
of the pupils becomes listless while they are not being 
called on, this may be taken as an evidence of failure in 
the recitation. Thinking can not thus be done in piece- 
meal and be efficient. Further, the pupils need to 
learn the lesson of giving sustained attention. They 
must learn to think a reasonable length of time contin- 
uously, without faltering or lagging. The remedy for 
this inattention on the part of the class is not, however; 
scolding, or rapping on the desk for attention, such as is 
heard in many schools. It is inspiring teaching and en- 
thusiasm on the part of the teacher. 

Is each pupil in the recitation receiving his share of 
opportunity and requirement^ A temptation constantly 
Each to receive his to be guarded against is that of call- 
share of attention jng chiefly on the bright and ready 
pupils. The recitation moves off much better if we do not 
call on the bungler or the slow-coach. The sparkling 
eyes and ready lips of the well prepared pupil are a 
potent invitation to ask him the question that should go 
to the backward one. The child slow in expression or 
understanding must have his chance ; he needs encourage- 
ment in expressing his thoughts, and can attain freedom 
only through practise. And it may also be true that the 
too-ready child needs to learn control, and to cultivate 
the habit of thinking before he speaks. 



2o6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Does the teacher by skilful questioning and by build- 
ing on what the pupils already know lead to understand- 
The question as a ing of new truths, — or does he tell 
method of teaching the facts himself ? Ever since the 
days of Socrates the method of developing knowledge 
in the mind of the child by skilful questioning has been 
accepted as the best and most natural way. Yet many 
teachers do not make good use of this method. It is 
much easier for the teacher to recite the troublesome 
point himself than to lead the child to see it through a 
series of questions ; hence the lazy or thoughtless teacher 
falls into this rut. Other teachers talk too much in gen- 
eral. They know the subject well and like to talk about 
it, so they do most of the reciting for the pupils. Still 
others, after having called on a pupil to recite, will inter- 
rupt him and go on to finish the discussion themselves. 
This is not only bad manners, but even worse pedagogy. 
Children learn to do by doing, and knowledge becomes 
clear and usable only through its expression. Let the 
teacher therefore set a guard over his own tongue, and 
cultivate the art of questioning. 

Has the teacher learned the art of questioning f For 
questioning is one of the most difficult arts to master, and 
Questioning a °^^ ^^^^ which few have perfect con- 

fine art trol. Is the teacher tied down to the 

text-book in questioning, asking the questions in the lan- 
guage of the book? One can not teach until one is able 
to declare his independence of a book. This does not 
mean that he may never refer to the text in the recitation. 
But it does require that he know the general subject and 
the particular lesson so well that he is not dependent on 
the text for his questions. Anything less than this is 
mere testing or catechizing and can not be called teaching. 



GOOD TEACHING 207 

Do tHe questions follow one another in a natural se- 
quence determined by the lesson to be developed, or are 
Principles of good ^^^J disconnected and haphazard? 
questioning Only the teacher who is thoroughly 

master of his subject can build his successive questions 
on the pupils' answers, clearing up a point here, empha- 
sizing a truth there, and making the whole series result in 
a coherent unified knowledge of the lesson. 

Are the questions clear? Often children do not know 
how to answer a question because they are not certain 
what the question means to ask. Here are some ques- 
tions recently asked by rural teachers in their recitations : 
"What about the fish in the Mammoth Cave? Why has 
a cat fur and duck feathers? What happens when it 
lightens? What of the animals in the temperate zone? 
How does tobacco grow?" Not one of these 
questions is clear, and hence none will admit of 
a definite answer. They are all the result of loose or 
careless thinking, and betray the teacher's lack of skill. 

Are the standards of the recitation sufficiently high? 

Is the work thorough so that it will do to build on for 

_,, .^ ^. J later study ? Much time is wasted in 

The recitation de- , 1 , , 

mands high our rural schools by stoppmg short of 

standards reasonable mastery. Children are 

trying to work in percentage when they can not handle 
the decimals involved; they are attempting denominate 
numbers and measurements when they can not use simple 
fractions. Likewise, we find them in advanced parts of 
the grammar when they can not recognize the parts of 
speech in a sentence, or pick out the subject and predi- 
cate. And so with the other subjects. Most of this in- 
excusable waste of time, effort and interest on the part 
of the child may be laid at the door of the teachers who 



2o8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

did not take the time or trouble to insure mastery of 
fundamentals before passing from them. 

Further, the children need for their own sake to be 
trained in high standards of excellence. The child who 
is set a task, and then let off with the task poorly done, 
or not done at all, has had an element of weakness and 
danger built into his life. On the other hand, the one 
who has been taught to measure up to all reasonable re- 
quirements and to set a high standard for his work, 
has added an invaluable element of strength to his char- 
acter. 

Is the recitation free from distractions? If thought 
and interest are to move along in an unbroken train, they 
Distractions fatal "^^^st not be interrupted too fre- 
to the recitation quently. The teacher who stops 
the recitation to answer questions asked by those 
outside the class, or to correct disorder, is himself 
a source of distraction, and ought to mend his ways. 
Most of the questions usually asked in the rural school 
could be saved by better foresight and management, and 
those that really need to be answered can usually be at- 
tended to between classes. The writer saw one teacher 
in the midst of a reading recitation leave a boy reading a 
paragraph while she went back in the room to help an- 
other pupil solve a problem in arithmetic. The reader 
mumbled his paragraph through, and then the class 
waited for the teacher to return to the recitation. Such 
gross mismanagement and incompetency as this teacher 
manifested would not be tolerated in a business concern, 
but would surely result in dismissal. 

The physical conditions surrounding the recitation are 
not seldom a source of distraction. The recitation seat 



GOOD TEACHING 209 

is sometimes near the stove, and the class are subjected 
to a roasting process. Sometimes the sunlight falls di- 
Physical condi- rectly on the books, and the eyes 

tions a factor are dazzled or pained. The air not 

infrequently is unfit for breathing, and results in lowered 
vitality and fagged brains. The minds of the pupils 
should be at their highest level of efficiency in the recita- 
tion, and every possible condition should be arranged to 
favor this end. 

Is the teacher helpful and responsive in the recitation ? 
Nothing is more embarrassing to one speaking than to 
Importance o£ have a dull, bored, or unresponsive 

teacher's attitude listener. The teacher whose face 
shows no sign of interest or appreciation is, to say the 
least, not a source of inspiration to his class. Teachers 
are sometimes critical, faultfinding and cross in the reci- 
tation. This attitude is always a mistake, for it has a 
tendency to embarrass the timid and to make sullen the 
more bold. A recitation at its best is simply an interest- 
ing conversation carried on between teacher and class ; 
and a conversation requires courtesy and responsiveness 
on both sides. The teacher must learn to be firm, insist- 
ent and thorough without becoming severe or over-crit- 
ical. His attitude should always be one of helpfulness 
and cooperation rather than one of attempting to corner 
or trap. 

Is the assignment of the next lesson properly made? 
Or does the teacher simply say, "Take the next chapter; 

Good teaching re- *^^ ^^^^^ ^^ excused"? Every lesson 
quires careful as- should be clearly and definitely as- 
signment signed, so that every member of the 
(ilass knows exactly what is to be done. The hard points 
should be given attention, and the more important sec- 



2IO BETTER RURAL! SCHOOLS 

tions emphasized. Jhe method of attack on the lesson 
should be suggested, and help given on the mode of its 
preparation. That all this will take time is no excuse for 
neglecting it. A reasonable proportion of the recitation 
time is better expended in this way than in any other. 
Any failure properly to assign lessons betrays lack of 
efficiency in one of the most important phases of the 
teacher's work. 



• . FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. Can you recall one or two of your own teachers 
who were especially a source of inspiration and help to 
you? Can you explain the secret of their powers? 

2. One writer says that 'Vicariousness" — the power of 
putting one's self in another person's place — is the first 
great attribute of a teacher. If so, why is this true ? What 
are several other fundamental attributes? 

3. Are all of the qualities that go to make a good 
teacher desirable outside the schoolroom? 

4. What qualities in particular would you say are most 
desirable in a teacher? One writer says that a teacher's 
personality is even more important than his knowledge. 
Is this statement true ? Can the personality be improved ? 

5. You have known some recitations to drag and 
others to move with life and interest. What factors are 
responsible for this difference? 

6. How much preparation do you get for your daily 
recitations? Do you enjoy recitations better when you 
are well prepared ? Do the children respond better ? How 
can you prepare daily if you have twenty-five classes? 

7. What is your method in assigning lessons ? Do you 
think it pays to take time for careful assignments ? What 
do you do with children who forget assignments? 

. 8. Have you observed wide variations in the standards 



GOOD TEACHING 211 

of excellence in the recitations in different schools? Is 
not all thoroughness relative, and will the teacher not 
need to take age and development into account? On the 
other hand, should partial answers and half-mastered 
truths be allowed to pass uncompleted? 



PART IV 

CONSOLIDATION AND RURAL- 
SCHOOL EFFICIENCY 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE MOVEMENT TOWARD CONSOLIDATION 

Many different factors are at work for the betterment 

of the rural schools. Of these none is more vital and 

_, . important than the movement toward 

Changes necessi- .... ... 

tating consoli- consolidation, or the combmmg of 

^^*^°" several small district schools into a 

single larger one. This movement first arose in New 
England, where it owed its origin to the dwindling size 
of the district schools. A generation or two ago it was 
common for the rural school to enroll thirty or forty 
pupils, and not infrequently as many as fifty were to be 
found within its walls. But that day is past. Permanent 
social and industrial changes have come about, and 
towns and cities are claiming an increasingly larger pro- 
portion of our people. Besides this, not a few of those 
who live on the farms now send their children to the 
town school instead of to the little home school. The 
consequence is that the district school has been losing in 
numbers, and occasional schools have become extinct 
from sheer lack of pupils. Thousands of rural schools 
are to-day running with less than ten pupils, and many 
with under half that number. 

This loss in numbers has produced serious conse- 
quences in the rural school, and our people are coming 

Loss In efficiency *° '^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ interest, the efficiency 
through small and the economy formerly belonging 

schools jQ ^j^g larger district school are want- 

215 



2i6 BETTER RURAL' SCHOOLS 

ing in the small schools of the present. To continue these 
unprofitable schools is like attempting to carry on our 
manufactures in thousands of primitive and poorly- 
equipped shops, each employing but a few workmen, in- 
stead of conducting such industries in well-equipped 
factories manned with hundreds or thousands of skilled 
mechanics. Readjustments must be made to meet the 
changed conditions in education, just as they have been 
made to meet new conditions in the industries. 

Consolidation is no new and untried experiment, as 
many unacquainted with its history think. Massachusetts 

Origin of con- ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^P toward consolida- 

solidation tion in the year 1869, and has steadily 

continued the policy to the present day. The pioneer in 
the movement was Superintendent William L. Eaton, of 
Concord. He looked about him in Concord Township, 
and saw the small and struggling schools, each irregularly 
attended by little groups of children from the neighbor- 
ing farms. He concluded that the children would be bet- 
ter off in one larger and stronger school. But the homes 
were widely scattered, and the distance was too great to 
walk. There was no law at that time allowing public 
money to be spent for the transportation of children to 
school. A new law was sought for this purpose, and the 
school was opened. At first the new school consisted of 
only two districts, but others voted to come in, and by 
the end of ten years all the schools of Concord Township 
were consolidated. 

The movement thus begun soon extended to other 
New England states, and so on to the Middle West, and 
Extent of more recently to the South and the 

consolidation far West. Consolidated schools now 

form an integral part of the school system of fully three- 




This building was planned for a school of forty or fifty pupils. The 
attendance has now dwindled to nine. For two years the boy- 
shown in the picture was the only boy in the school. This is a 
case where a good district building adequately equipped fails to 
attract pupils when a consolidated school is within reach 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CONSOLIDATION 217 

fourths of the states, and are spreading to the remaining 
ones. This type of school is in successful operation all 
the way from Maine to Florida, and from Massachusetts 
to Washington and Oregon. It is therefore not limited 
to any particular geographical or economic conditions. 
The plan has proved successful on the plains of Texas, 
among the hills of Vermont, and on the sparsely-settled 
prairies of North Dakota. 

This is not to say that all district schools are soon to 
be replaced by consolidated schools, and that the one- 
room school will henceforth be remembered only as 
history. Many conditions render this impossible. There 
are now in the United States something over two hun- 
dred thousand one-room country schools, while but a few 
thousand consolidated schools have been organized. 

Yet the importance of the consolidation movement 
can not be measured by a comparison of these figures. 
For, though the movement began 
more than forty years ago, it is only 
within the last decade that it has taken on national im- 
portance and gathered irresistible momentum. It is esti- 
mated that more schools have been consolidated during 
the last five years than in all the time preceding since the 
movement began. There is not a state in the union where 
consolidation is not now being agitated, and compulsory 
or favorable legislation is being passed in many of them. 
As an example of these laws, Indiana requires the auto- 
matic closing of all schools that fall below twelve in en- 
rollment, while Minnesota and Iowa have recently passed 
acts granting state aid to schools that consolidate. The 
federal Bureau of Education and the Department of Ag- 
riculture are both giving much attention and study to the 
matter of consolidation, and are lending it their powerful 



2i8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

support as a part of rural-school improvement. State 
departments of education are also taking up the question 
and urging its acceptance by their people. Besides these 
activities, county superintendents, patrons and teachers 
are studying and discussing the matter, and rapidly pre- 
paring the way for its more general acceptance. 

One of the most striking illustrations of the wide- 
spread interest in the success of consolidation is found 
in the recent visit of a party of educators consisting of 
eleven southern state superintendents, several state 
supervisors of rural schools, a representative of the 
United States Department of Agriculture and a repre- 
sentative of the Southern Education Board, to certain 
regions where consolidated schools are in operation. 
These men were sent at the expense of public funds or 
private benefactions to study the systems of consolidation 
as they are being worked out in sections of Indiana, Ohio, 
Canada, Maryland and Virginia. They came to the 
problem with open minds, ready to see both the ad- 
vantages and the faults of such a system. Some of them 
had already been advocating consolidation in their home 
states, while others were less certain of its success. Their 
sincere purpose was to learn at first-hand to what extent 
the consolidated schools, once permanently established, 
enter into rural community life and become a factor in 
preparing the youth educationally and vocationally for 
their work. 

These educators visited the schools in their regular 
daily work. They rode in the school wagons ; they talked 
Leading educators ^^^^ patrons, _ pupils, teachers and 
support the trustees ; they investigated the matter 

movement Qf expense, both for running the 

school and for transportation ; they studied the effect on 




Southern state superintendents leaving Cravvfordsville, Indiana, the 
starting point of a twelve day tour among the consolidated schools 
of Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Canada 




Courtesy of iV. R. Baker (Ala.) 
An old log school house with only one window and this without glass 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CONSOLIDATION 219 

attendance and educational interest. In every possible 
way these investigators sought to discover the true meas- 
ure of the efficiency of consohdated schools. As a result 
of their painstaking study the cause of consolidation has 
been greatly advanced. For, so fully convinced were 
these officials of the value and feasibility of consolida- 
tion, that they are earnestly advocating its adoption, and 
have already done much to further the movement in 
their own and other states. Through their influence and 
other factors also at work, many parts of the South are 
now leading the North in rural-school reform and prog- 
ress. 

The movement toward consolidation has at no stage 
been a fad. Farmers are naturally a highly conservative 
Consolidation class, and because of their very isola- 

not a fad tion, immune from the hasty and ir- 

rational spirit of the mob. Consolidation is therefore 
but gradually being assimilated into the rural-school 
system. It has been adopted as a result of observation 
and experiment, and it flourishes best where civic ambi- 
tion and high educational ideals control. There is no 
danger of reaction toward the old district type of school ; 
for in no case has a fully consolidated school reverted 
to the former one-room type. Indeed the greatest of all 
factors in promoting consolidation is the loyalty and 
enthusiasm of the patrons of consolidated schools who, 
as a rule, are abundantly satisfied with the new school, 
and would not hear of returning to the old. 

The present status of consolidation may be estimated 
from recent statements written or published by the state 
Present status of superintendents of certain of the con- 
consolidation solidation states. In Massachusetts 
the movement has almost ceased to advance, from the 



220 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

fact that it has proceeded about as far as is at present 
practicable. This state spent over a third of a milHon 
dollars during the year 1911-1912 for the transportation 
of pupils to consolidated schools. Louisiana has three 
hundred consolidated schools, accommodating some fifty 
thousand pupils. Idaho is transporting over five thou- 
sand children at public expense, and predicts that within 
a few years consolidated schools will completely sup- 
plant one-room schools. In Washington more than thirty 
of the forty counties have begun consolidation, and the 
movement is rapidly growing. Consolidation has pro- 
ceeded so far in Rhode Island that there are less than two 
hundred ungraded schools left in the state. Under the 
new consolidation law, Minnesota built about sixty con- 
solidated schools in the year 1911-1912, and the move- 
ment is spreading with great rapidity ; sixteen thousand 
pupils attend consolidated schools in Minnesota. Kansas 
has nine thousand children attending the consolidated 
schools, which are constantly growing in favor. Okla- 
homa finds the consolidation sentiment stimulated by re- 
cent legislation granting state aid to consolidated schools, 
and now has over eight thousand children in these 
schools. Arkansas has more than one hundred consoli- 
dated schools, and many others in project. Ohio has 
two hundred consolidated schools, accommodating fifteen 
thousand rural children, and is rapidly extending the con- 
solidated system. Florida reports consolidated schools 
in thirty-three of the forty-eight counties of the state. 
Tennessee accommodates some eight thousand pupils in 
consolidated schools, and is extending the system. Ver- 
mont sends one-fifth of her rural children to consolidated 
schools, and is increasing the proportion. Seven out of 
Utah's twenty-seven counties have consolidated their 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CONSOLIDATION 221 

schools, which are attended by an aggregate of more than 
thirty-one thousand pupils. New Jersey expends about 
two hundred thousand dollars annually for the trans- 
portation of pupils to school. North Carolina is pushing 
consolidation, and now has about one-fourth of her pupils 
accommodated in schools of two or more rooms. 

This new type of school has absorbed more than 
twelve hundred of North Carolina's one-room schools 
during the last ten years. It is, however, in the state of 
Indiana that the greatest progress has been made in re- 
cent years, and that we find the nearest approach to a 
state system of consolidated schools. Eighty-two out of 
the ninety-two counties of the state now have consoli- 
dated schools in operation, and approximately half a mil- 
lion dollars a year is being paid for the transportation of 
pupils to consolidated schools. Many of these consoli- 
dated schools have a full four-year high-school course, 
and as full equipment as a city school. Montgomery 
County, in this state, is, according to the report of the 
United States Commissioner of Education, the banner 
county for the proportion of its rural pupils attending 
consolidated schools, the percentage being eighty-four for 
consolidated schools and sixteen for one-room schools. 

Still other statements could be presented showing 
similar conditions in many of the remaining states. 
Enough has been said, however, to prove that consolida- 
tion has passed the experimental stage. It is no longer a 
question of tvhether the one-room schools yet remaining 
in many parts of the country shall be abandoned, and 
consolidated schools erected in their stead ; the question 
is rather how this is best to be brought about, and what 
should be the type of the new school. 

The rapidity of the movement toward consolidation is 



222 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS • ^ 

affected by the melliods adopted for the change from 
one system to the other. The earliest laws in New 
Methods of Chang. England required that each one of 
ing to consolidated the districts affected by consolida- 
system ^Jqj^ should vote separately on the 

question, and that no district should be forced to aban- 
don its school against its will. This plan was natural 
and right enough while the movement was still an experi- 
ment. But it is at best but a slow process, for, voting by 
single districts, a few objectors can often defeat the 
whole project. The later method, first adopted by the 
Ohio voters, is for the entire area to be included in the 
consolidated district to vote as a unit. Thus, under this 
method, if it is proposed to form a new district by con- 
solidating five small districts, the voters from all the 
districts assemble and vote in the one election, a majority 
carrying the project for all districts concerned. This 
method is undoubtedly the better one, and the plan that 
should be followed in all new legislation on the subject. 
Three different legislative methods have been chiefly 
employed to provide for the extension of the system of 
Legislation bear- consolidation: (i) Permissive \egis- 
ing on consoli- lation, which merely provides that 

**^*^°" school districts or townships may if 

they wish consolidate their schools and provide trans- 
portation at public expense. Such were the earlier laws 
in all the pioneer states, and the type that is still common 
in most of the states. We have, therefore, no complete 
state system of consolidation. The movement is strictly 
one of local or district option. (2) Compulsory legis- 
lation, requiring that all schools which fall below a 
certain minimum shall be closed, and the pupils trans- 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CONSOLIDATION 223 

ported to neighboring schools at public expense. It is 
hardly probable that this type of legislation will become 
popular, though it is entirely rational wherever the con- 
ditions are such that transportation of the pupils belong- 
ing to the abandoned school is possible. Indiana has 
taken the lead in compulsory legislation, requiring the 
discontinuance of all schools having a daily average at- 
tendance of twelve or less, and leaving it optional with 
the township trustee to close schools with an average 
daily attendance of fifteen or less. Several other states 
have similar laws, but usually with such exemption 
clauses as to render the law practically inoperative. (3) 
State aid to consolidated schools on condition that certain 
requirements are met. This principle has long been in 
operation in varying forms in different states. Minne- 
sota, however, furnishes the best recent example of the 
use of state aid to encourage consolidation. Under the 
Minnesota law, each consolidated school having two 
rooms and two teachers receives annually from the state 
treasury the sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars. 
Similarly, a three-teacher school receives one thousand 
dollars, and one having four or more teachers, fifteen 
hundred dollars. In addition, the state encourages the 
erection of good school buildings by providing aid up to a 
possible maximum of fifteen hundred dollars for build- 
ing purposes for any one school, on condition that certain 
building requirements are met. The effects of this finan- 
cial encouragement can hardly be overestimated in stimu- 
lating the local communities, first, to consolidate their 
schools, and second, to erect good buildings with ade- 
quate equipment. The first year under this law saw 
fifty consolidations effected in Minnesota, as against nine 



2241 BETTER RURAL SCHOOUS 

for the eleven years preceding the adoption of the law. 
Iowa has more recently passed a similar law, and its 
effects are already being felt. 

It should be recognized in speaking of consolidated 
schools that no uniformity exists at present as to the 
precise type of schools to which this term shall apply. 
In many regions of the country, particularly in the South, 
where the vote on consolidation is taken by separate dis- 
tricts, the first step toward consolidation is the union of 
but two adjacent schools, with no extension of the cur- 
riculum and no great improvement in the grading. Such 
schools are sometimes referred to as consolidated schools, 
but are more correctly described as union schools. 

George W. Knorr, who has made an excellent and ex- 
tensive study of consolidated schools for the federal De- 
Consolidated and partment of Agriculture thus distin- 
"union" schools guishes between consolidated and 
union schools: "A consolidated school is one combining 
three or more one or two-room district schools. It is 
usually located at a logical and conveniently accessible 
center within a territory of between ten and forty square 
miles, and provides free public conveyance of all pupils 
who live beyond a reasonable walking distance from the 
school. A union school combines two small district 
schools of one or two rooms into one."^ It is probable 
that the distinction here made does not sharply enough 
bring out the difference in standards of the two types of 
schools. The union school is often set up as a measure 
of sheer economy; the consolidated school always seeks 
greater efficiency. 

Consolidation has already gone far enough to prove 

^Southern Education Board of Publication Number six, page 
eleven. 



MOVEMENT TOWARQ CONSOLIDATION 225 

that it is practicable over a far wider range of country 
than was at first supposed. The two most unconquerable 
Consolidation not ^oes are sparsely-settled areas and 
limited by locality bad roads, the latter resulting from 
mud, snow, or many very steep hills. Difficult as these 
two factors make the problem, however, they are less 
discouraging than the indifference and conservatism still 
prevailing in many places where all other conditions are 
favorable. Some of the most successful attempts at con- 
solidation are being made in thinly-settled regions of 
North Dakota and in Idaho, where both distance and 
the roads are a handicap. In Vermont, also, where the 
topography makes transportation difficult, consolidation 
has proceeded at an encouraging rate. The chief element 
in the success of the movement is, after all, an awakened 
public interest in education, and full information as to 
what consolidated schools are actually accomplishing for 
the communities where they are fully established. 

On the other hand, nothing is further from the truth 
than the supposition that consolidation will remedy all 
Consolidation not ^^'^^ shortcomings of rural education. 
a panacea There is no magic in the consolidated 

school. Consolidation only supplies the conditions under 
which efficiency in education may be achieved. It allows 
a broader and richer curriculum, better buildings and 
equipments, better teaching, and a wider and more help- 
ful range of associations than are possible in the district 
school. Unless these things are supplied, there is little 
virtue in the mere fact of consolidation. But they are 
being supplied in the consolidated schools already organ- 
ized, and it is the demand for them that insures the 
further spread of the consolidated system. 

It is true that the one-room school must not be for- 



226 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

gotten or neglected. For many rural children will for 
years receive all their education in the district type of 
One-room schools rural schools, and every effort should 
not to be neglected be made to raise their standards of 
efficiency where it is impracticable to transform them 
into consolidated schools. The district school will, how- 
ever, soon cease to stand as the type of rural education 
in this country. Careful estimates lead to the conclusion 
that from four to five million of the six million country 
children will within the next generation obtain their 
education in well-equipped consolidated schools, instead 
of in the old type of district school. It is safe to say that 
the movement toward consolidation of rural schools is 
the most important national movement now under way 
in country-life education. It will therefore be our pur- 
pose to look a little more closely into the nature of the 
consolidated school and its relation to better rural educa- 
tion. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. What is the smallest district school in your town- 
ship ? What is the average monthly cost per pupil in this 
school? Compare this with the cost in town or city 
schools. 

2. What do you consider the chief obstacles to con- 
solidation in your community ? How may these obstacles 
be overcome ? 

3. What arguments would you use to convince an op- 
ponent of consolidation, that it is (i) not a mere fad, 
(2) that the cost is not prohibitive, (3) that transporta- 
tion is not impossible under average conditions? 

4. What is the law on consolidation in your state? 
Does it need revision ? If so, in what direction ? 

5. What effect do you think consolidation will have 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CONSOLIDATION 227 

on tKe status of teachers, (i) in the number of available 
positions, (2) in requirements, (3) in salaries, (4) in 
conditions under which to work ? 

6. Are you willing to help accomplish consolidation in 
your county? If so, are you willing to study the question 
sufficiently so that you can speak with authority on it ? 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL; 

There are in the United States at the present time 
three distinct types of rural schools. These are, in the 
The three types order of their development, the dis- 
o£ rural schools trict school the union school and the 
consolidated school, and may be defined as follows : 

A district school is an ungraded one-teacher school 
usually within walking distance of all the families in the 
territory it serves. 

A union school is two or more district schools united 
in one enlarged district or semi-graded school. 

A consolidated school is two or more district or union 
schools combined in one large graded school, conveniently 
located, and to which pupils from the outlying districts 
are transported, usually at public expense. 

The difference between the consolidated and union 
schools is more vital and real than apparent. These 
two types of schools have not always been distinguished 
from each other, and union schools are not infrequently 
called consolidated schools. This confusion is due to 
the failure to bear in mind that the term "consolidation" 
as applied to rural schools has acquired the right to bar 
from its classification all schools which are not satisfac- 
torily graded, whose buildings and equipment are in- 
adequate and out-of-date, and to which oupils living at 
a distance are not transported. 

228 ■ - 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 229 

District schools, as already shown, had their origin at 
a time when life was simple, families large, roads new 
Place of dis- ^^^ poor, and when education beyond 

trict schools the simplest rudiments was looked on 

more as a luxury than a necessity. They were created 
to meet an immediate and pressing need, and inestimable 
good they have rendered. For two hundred years they 
have been for rural America the most important social 
institution after the home and the church. 

Union schools are probably as a rule inferior to the 
average district school. This is because of overcrowded 
Union schools not conditions and intensified disadvan- 
the highest type tages, with almost no added advan- 
tages. A recent investigation of union schools in eight 
states brought out the following facts: Of the two- 
teacher union schools, approximately sixty-five per cent, 
had both teachers in one room, which in certain instances 
was converted into two rooms by means of curtains or 
some other form of improvised partitions. Sixty per cent, 
of all the union schools covered by this investigation 
were using one of the old district buildings which in only 
a few instances had been enlarged or altered. Fewer than 
ten per cent, were offering transportation of any kind. 
This investigation confirms the conviction that union 
schools are in the main mere makeshifts, often instituted 
to save expense, with no thought of improving conditions. 

However well they may have served the past, district 
and union schools do not meet the needs or measure up 
to the standards of the present. Weighed in the balances 
of comfort, educational efficienc)'' and hygienic require- 
ments, these schools are found wanting, and must give 
way to a type of school patterned after twentieth cen- 
tury standards. 



230 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

That consolidation seems the best and most desirable 
type of rural school has been proved beyond all reason- 
Looking forward ^^^^ ^°''^^- Professor Eugene Daven- 
to consolidated port, who has made an exhaustive in- 

*yP® vestigation of the success and opera- 

tion of rural-school consolidation, says: "No case is on 
record in which the change has been made back again 
from consolidation to the small school. . . . The most 
searching inquiry has failed to discover any disadvan- 
tages worthy of mention," 

I Before consolidation had passed through the stage 
of experimentation. Honorable William T. Harris, then 
United States Commissioner of Education, wrote : "Upon 
the success of Consolidation rests the chief hope for the 
improvement of the rural school. It is fortunate that a 
device which changes the ungraded school into a graded 
school involves a saving of expense. The improvement 
is well worth the trial, even were it to double the cost 
of the rural school ; but, as will be seen by statistics, it 
is secured with an actual saving of expenditure. Better 
teachers, more sanitary buildings, less personal expense 
on the part of the pupils, better classification and many 
.lesser advantages are commending this reform over the 
'country." 

President E. T. Fairchild, of the New Hampshire Col- 
lege of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, says : "Would it 
inot pay as an investment to bring the school up to the 
same high standard of efficiency that is being enjoyed 
by the modern up-to-date farm ? . . . The old-time coun- 
try school, as many of us remember it, has gone, never 
to return. The large attendance, the male teacher in the 
winter, the pupils ranging in age from six to twenty-one 
are no longer in evidence. Consolidation is the only 



f 




Consolidated school at Twin Falls, Idaho. The building and the school 
hacks are typical of the consolidated school in the Far West 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 231 

way of securing really good country schools, and it is 
the only solution of the problem of agricultural educa- 
tion." I 

One of the first and most obvious advantages of con- 
solidation is that it supplies the necessary conditions for 
Consolidation ^ graded school. The district school 

allows grading can never be graded accurately where 

there is but one teacher for all eight grades. In thou- 
sands of one-room schools the work is a mere jumble, 
with no regular order of procedure in passing from one 
subject to another, and no plan or guide as to the cor- 
relation of studies or the amount of time to be spent on 
them. The woeful loss of time under such conditions is 
too obvious to require discussion. 

Nor with the great variety of subjects now demanded 
in the curriculum, can any teacher be well prepared to 
teach them all. This is the age of specialists, and no 
rural teacher should be expected to teach more than two, 
or at the most, three grades. Not only is the amount 
of preparation required too great to admit of one person 
handling the subject-matter of all eight grades, but the 
difference in the ages of the pupils demands different 
methods of instruction and leadership. In other words, 
children representing all ages from six to fifteen years 
and requiring a wide differentiation in the subjects taught 
them, should have teachers specially prepared for certain 
ages or grades. 

The consolidated school makes possible a system of 
grading similar to that employed in urban schools. The 
Grading provides P^pils can then have a regular se- 
goal for pupils quence of studies assigned ; they can 

pass through the subjects at a rate standardized through 
the experience of many schools; and they can work to- 



232 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS ' 

ward the definite goal of completing a specified require- 
ment for graduation from the elementary school or ad- 
mission into the high school. The teacher, relieved of 
the necessity of covering the whole range of elementary 
subjects, can now specialize on one or two grades of 
the work and develop a high degree of efficiency. Or, 
he may specialize in some one or two subjects, and teach 
these in several grades, thus carrying out the plan of 
departmental teaching now adopted in many elementary 
schools in towns and cities. 

The consolidated school also has an important bear- 
ing upon the size of the classes. Few will question the 
The waste in very statement that it is easier and more 
small classes stimulating to teach a comparatively 

large class than a very small one. In the average dis- 
trict school it is no uncommon thing to find class after 
class numbering three, two, and even one, pupil. Now, 
it requires practically as much time and effort on the part 
of a teacher to make preparation for a class numbering 
one or two pupils as for a class of twelve or fifteen. And 
it is far less difficult to create and maintain interest in a 
larger class than in a very small one. By gathering all 
the pupils from five, six or more old district schools into 
a consolidated school, each class is sure to be sufficiently 
large to stimulate both teacher and pupils. 

More important still is the amount of time allotted to 
each class. The average number of recitations per day 
Better distribution i" district schools is approximately 
of teaching time double the average number in graded 
schools. This means that the teacher in a graded school 
can give twice as much time to each recitation or class as 
the teacher in the district school. A study of the schools 
of one county where there are nearly an equal number of 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 233 

teachers in graded and ungraded schools showed that the 
average number of recitations per day in the district 
schools was twenty-seven, as against eleven in the con- 
solidated schools. The average number of minutes given 
to each recitation was thirteen in the district schools, as 
against twenty-nine in the consolidated schools. Now it 
is wholly evident that no teacher can do justice to him- 
self or his school if he has twenty-seven classes a day, 
and an average of only thirteen minutes for each reci- 
tation. 

Consolidation is the only rational outcome of the de- 
mand for an extension of the rural-school curriculum. 

o 1-j ^- 1 The public is asking for a course of 
Consolidation al- ^ ° . 

lows extension study that shall not only mclude the 

of curriculum ^j^ fundamentals, but also add the 

practical newer branches relating to the immediate life 
and work of the pupils. This can never be accomplished 
successfully in the district school with its many grades 
under one already overworked teacher. It requires the 
consolidated school, with its division into grades, and 
some opportunity for specialization on the part of the 
teachers. 

The consolidated school is the chief agent for securing 
new and necessary buildings and equipment. For one 
Better buildings whose school-days were spent in a 
and equipment district school to visit a modern city 

school and pass from room to room including assembly 
room, library, laboratories, playrooms, gymnasium, lava- 
tories, manual-training shops, kitchen and sewing-room 
is enough to cause him to feel that society has immeasur- 
ably and irreparably defrauded him. Country boys and 
girls have as much need for these things as a part of their 
school facilities as city children. But they are possible 



234 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

only in the consolidated school. Nor can the matter be 
put aside by calling attention to the many compensating 
advantages enjoyed by country children. Many of the 
very people who talk and write most enthusiastically 
about the advantages of country life would greatly hesi- 
tate to place their own children in a one-teacher country 
school. The one man who said and did most to hinder 
consolidation in a certain western county, moved to the 
county seat for the express purpose of giving his chil- 
dren better school advantages than were offered by the 
district school near his farm home. 

' The cry for better buildings and equipment involves 
vastly more than mere pride and a growing desire to 

Ajj-.- 1 r M« effect visible improvement. Both are 
Additional facili- . ^ . . 

ties required by necessary m order to make it possible 
new subjects ^qj. country people to participate in 

the "new education." The more practical and helpful 
subjects recently added to the curriculum can not be 
taught effectively within the walls of the country school- 
house. These branches of study require not only addi- 
tional room but special equipment. Where in the ordi- 
nary district school building is there room for a labora- 
tory, a workshop, a domestic-science department, or a 
kitchen ? But perhaps of even more importance than these 
is the matter of sanitation and the health of body and soul. 
It can not be denied that the average district school 
falls short in the matter of hygienic and moral safe- 
guards. With rare exceptions district schools have very 
limited and undesirable accommodations in the seating, 
the lighting, the ventilation and the lavatory equipment 
which they possess. Consolidated schools are being built 
that are beyond criticism on these points. 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 235 

Consolidation has proved desirable because it has se- 
cured better teachers and closer supervision. Before the 
Consolidated establishment of modern high schools 

schools demand in every city and town, with their call 
better teachers £qj. ^j^ increasing number of high- 

class teachers, district schools offered the only field of 
service to a majority of the young men and women en- 
tering the teaching profession. And it is well agreed 
that many of the best teachers remained permanently in 
the country schools. But in these days when there are 
so few eft'ective inducements to lead promising young 
people into teaching, and when the city schools are the 
goal of almost every aspiring teacher, it is next to impos- 
sible to find competent teachers for the one-room country 
schools. 

To be sure there are many marked successes among 
the beginning teachers in district schools, but the very 
The handicap of ^^^^ ^^^^ these young teachers have 
district schools done excellent work in spite of severe 
handicap is sufficient ground for calling them to larger 
schools. The superintendents and school boards of many 
town and city schools ask for no better field from which 
to select new teachers than from the beginning teachers 
who have made good in rural schools. One or two years' 
experience in these schools seems to be regarded as pe- 
culiarly good preparation for a position in a town or city 
school. In a certain county in the Middle West, there 
were during one school year two hundred and thirty-four 
teachers, thirty-eight of whom were teaching their first 
term: of these thirty-eight first-year teachers, thirty-six 
were in district schools. And more interesting still, there 
were only forty-four district schools in the county at 



236 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

that time. In other words, there were just eight district 
teachers in the county who had had experience. And of 
these thirty-six beginning teachers only seven returned to 
the district schools the following year. The remaining 
twenty-nine have either dropped out of the profession, or 
were promoted to larger schools. 

A recent investigation covering thirty-six counties in 
twelve representative states showed that a majority of 
district schools changed teachers every year. That this 
is one cause of the decline in the character of district 
schools none will deny. And should one charge this fault 
up to teachers in these schools ? Who can blame an am- 
bitious young teacher for accepting a tempting offer to 
take a position in a city, town or consolidated school? 
District schools require more work and more responsi- 
bility, entail more hardships, and offer considerably less 
remuneration than the more desirable schools. 

By closer supervision we mean the presence and serv- 
ices of the superintendent or principal, who is at the head 

^ ,^ . . of every consolidated school. The 

Better supervision •' 

in consolidated very fact that the daily work of a 

schools teacher falls under the scrutiny of 

an experienced leader or superintendent is enough to 
call forth maximum effort. There can be no such super- 
vision over district teachers. An annual or semi-annual 
visit from the county superintendent may help a little, 
but in the words of an experienced district teacher, 
"When the superintendent is most needed, he can not be 
had ; and when he is least wanted he is likely to appear." 
Consolidation meets this need by providing each school 
and each teacher with a competent and accessible superin- 
tendent. 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 237 

Consolidation has proved its superiority over the other 
two types of rural schools hy keeping a larger percentage 
C YA t A ^f ^'^^ older children in school. 

schools keep Thoughtful persons everywhere are 

pupils longer coming to realize that one of the 

gravest problems connected with the education of our 
youth is the question of preventing so many boys and 
girls from dropping out of school with but the smatter- 
ing of an education. How the consolidated school af- 
fects attendance is typified by a new school in Louder- 
dale County, Tennessee, where a consolidated school 
now has twice the enrollment of all the district schools 
it displaced. 

A comparative study of the number of children be- 
tween fourteen and eighteen who are out of school in 
localities served respectively by consolidated and district 
schools has shown that consolidation succeeds in hold- 
ing nearly twice as many pupils of these ages. Whether 
this is due to the high-school advantages offered by the 
average consolidated school, or to the more attractive 
buildings, grounds and associations is neither here nor 
there in the discussion. The plain fact is that consoli- 
dated schools are keeping hundreds of boys and girls 
in school who otherwise would have dropped out. Re- 
ports from county superintendents in states where con- 
solidation is in operation show that it is a common thing 
to find as many boys and girls above fourteen years of 
age out of school in a single district served by the old 
type of school as in the entire area served by a consoli- 
dated school. And what makes this weakness on the 
part of the district schools a still more serious matter is 
the fact that approximately eighty per cent, of these 



238 BETTER RURAL! SCHOOLS 

boys and girls who are out of school have never com- 
pleted the elementary course. 

Greater economy has been urged as an outstanding ad- 
vantage of consolidation. Some of the most influential 

Economy not the ^"'"'^' ^""^ promoters of consolida- 
reason for con- tion have held that a consolidated 
solidation school can be operated more cheaply 

than the aggregate cost of the district schools supplanted 
by the consolidated school. For example Doctor W. T. 
Harris, v^hom we have quoted on an earlier page, uses 
these words : "It is fortunate that a device which changes 
the ungraded school into a graded school involves a 
saving of expense." Other officials have issued bulle- 
tins and pamphlets purporting to show that consolidation 
means an actual saving to taxpayers. We shall not at- 
tempt to prove that consolidation reduces the amount of 
money needed for school purposes in communities adopt- 
ing this type of school. But it is beyond question that 
a given amount of money spent in establishing or main- 
taining consolidated schools will purchase much more 
genuine and lasting advantage than an equal amount 
spent in establishing or maintaining district schools. It 
is further true that the same amount of schooling, day 
for day, can usually be had for at least as little in the 
consolidated as in the one-room school. The following 
table allows an interesting comparison to be made be- 
tween the two types of schools. 

The comparative cost of consolidated and district 
schools as shown by reports from the county superintend- 
A comparison of ^nts representing the states of Ala- 
relative cost bama, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, 
Minnesota, Illinois, Idaho and Washington is shown. 
These superintendents were asked to give the average cost 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 239 

of the best district and the best consolidated school in 
their respective counties. All of the consolidated schools 
reported maintain a high-school department. 

A Comparison of the Cost of Buildings and 
Equipment 

Av. Cost of Av. Cost of 

Best. Con- Best Dis- 
solidated trict 

School School 

Building and grounds $18,000 $3,000 

Equipment 3,ooo 500 

Heating system and plumbing 3, 500 180 

Library, maps, charts and pictures. 500 70 

Total amount invested 25,000 3,750 

Interest on amount invested at six 

per cent 1,500 225 

A Comparison of Annual Expenditures 

Teaching $3,040 $360 

Supervision 500 20 

Transportation 1,500 

Janitor service 200 30 

Fuel 160 45 

Library 100 5 

Transfers from one district to an 

other ... 90 

Insurance 25 5 

Repairs 50 20 

Miscellaneous 100 30 

Interest on initial cost 1,500 225 

Total annual cost 7,i75 930 

Number of pupils enrolled 139 21 

Per capita cost 51 44 

It is thus seen that the modern one-room building is 
costing an average of $3,000, and the consolidated build- 
Summary of ^"g six times as much ; and that the 
results average total amount invested in the 
consolidated school is $25,000, and in the district school, 



240 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

$3,750. The teachers in the best one-room schools are 
averaging $360 a year, while the teachers' budget for 
the average consolidated school amounts to $3,040, more 
than eight times as much, though there are seldom 
more than six or seven teachers in the consolidated 
school, and frequently less than six. The greatest 
increase is in the cost of supervision, the consoli- 
dated averaging twenty-five times as much for this item 
as the district school. Another excellent indication 
is seen in the fact that the average consolidated school 
spends twenty times as much for library purposes an- 
nually as the district school, though the consolidated 
school combines only from four to six district schools. 
The average number of pupils enrolled in the best one- 
room schools is twenty-one, while the average number 
for the best consolidated schools is one hundred and 
thirty-nine. The annual cost per pupil is greater for the 
best consolidated than for the best one-room schools, the 
former being fifty-one dollars, and the latter forty-four 
dollars. When the fact is taken into account, however, 
that the attendance in the consolidated school is much 
more regular than in the district school, and that the 
school year is also longer, it is found that the cost per 
day of actual schooling is usually not greater in the con- 
solidated than in the one-room school. Frequently it is 
considerably less. 

But educational advantages and social opportunities 
can not be measured in terms of dollars and cents alone ; 
Cost not the ^^^^ '^^ important, but not all. The 

true measure strongest claims for the consolidated 

school are not based on the question of economy. They 
are based on the belief that our people are ready for, and 
are demanding: (l)^ better accommodations, (2) higher 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 241 

educational efficiency, and (3) an enriched country life. 
When the consoHdated school fails to excel the district 
or union school in these advantages, it fails to live up 
to the real purpose for which it was created. 

The difference between the consolidated and the dis- 
trict schools as to the distribution of the teacher's time 
is shown in the following table representing the two 
types of schools in Montgomery County, Indiana, where 
eighty-four per cent, of the rural children are in con- 
solidated schools and sixteen per cent, in one-room 
schools : 

Consolidated District 

Average number of grades per 

teacher 2.7 6.4 

Percentage of teacher's time per 

grade 37 15 

Number of recitations per day. ... 11 27 

Minutes for each recitation 29 13 

Minutes for each grade taught... 117 56 

It is seen from these figures that the teacher of the 
one-room school handles nearly two and one-half times 
the number of grades cared for by the teacher in the 
consolidated school. He also hears almost two and one- 
half times as many recitations daily, and therefore has 
less than one-half as much time for each recitation. Each 
grade in the consolidated school receives more than 
twice as much of the teacher's time as a grade in the 
district school. When it is also taken into account that 
the consolidated schools run from nine o'clock to four, 
and the district schools from eight-thirty to four in this 
county, the discrepancy becomes still greater. 

In order to test the attitude of patrons toward the con- 



242 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS. 

solidated school an inquiry was recently instituted in 
which the following were among the questions asked : ( i ) 
What do you consider to be some of 
pafron"^to°advan- ^^^ greatest advantages of the consoli- 
tages of con- dated schools? (2) What are some 

so 1 ation ^£ ^1^^ greatest weaknesses of this 

type of school? (3) Would you be willing to return to 
the old district school if you were assured that your 
teacher would be equally as competent as the present 
teachers in your consolidated school ? 

In reply to the first question the following represent the 
type of answers given by these patrons : The consolidated 
school provides better building and equipment. It results 
in better teachers. Better discipline is maintained. The 
consolidated school saves washing and patching of 
clothes. It makes it unnecessary for parents to force or 
drive their children to attend school. There is less of 
sickness and bad colds. It puts the children in larger 
classes. The consolidated school enables our children 
to have more practical and useful matter taught them. 

In reply to the second question, typical criticisms were : 
The school is trying to do too much work. The lesson 

assignments are too long. The chil- 

Valid criticisms , ^ 1 • i.t. t'u^ 

dren are too long m the wagons. 1 he 

wagons are not always comfortable. The wagon driver 
drives too slowly. The teachers are too strict. It is to 
be noted that the only criticisms that could not equally 
well be lodged against any other type of school are those 
dealing with the matter of transportation. And it is 
frankly to be acknowledged that the transportation sys- 
tem as organized in many places is susceptible of radi- 
cal improvement. Suggestions as to certain lines of im- 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 243 

provement in the wagon service will be made in another 
chapter. 

The most striking result from the inquiry, however, 

was in response to the third question. Not one of all the 

many patrons interrogated would 

Universal loyalty ^^.^y. ^^ returning to the district 

school. While certain details of the consolidated school 
were freely criticized, this type of school was unan- 
imously accepted as the most promising solution of the 
problem of rural education. The simple chance to com- 
pare the advantages offered by the consolidated school 
with those offered by the district school was enough to 
convert all the original objectors and opponents, and 
unite the neighborhood in the common aim of securing 
better rural schools through consolidation. 



FOR teachers" discussion AND STUDY 

1. Can you relate the three types of rural schools to 
stages of social or economic development? What is the 
fundamental difference between district and union 
schools? What is the fundamental difference between 
union and consolidated schools? If some patron should 
ask you what constitutes a consolidated school, how 
would you answer? 

2. What reasons explain the decline of the district 
schools ? For what purpose are most of the union schools 
established? Why are so many of them inferior to the 
district schools? 

3. Has consolidation begun in your community? If 
so, when did it start? Explain in detail its success and 
growth. See if you can find where a good consolidated 
school has ever been abandoned and the district school 



244 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

reestablished. Write your state superintendent and ask 
if he has any record of a case of this kind. 

4. How fully do you agree with what the late William 
T. Harris said about the consolidated school? With 
the other prominent educators who are quoted in this 
chapter? What do you understand by President Fair- 
child's statement that "the old-time country school has 
gone never to return" ? Do you think this is true ? 

5. What is the first great advantage of consolidation? 
Explain what is meant by the terms "graded school," 
and "ungraded school." Discuss some of the advantages 
the graded school has over the ungraded school. Can 
you think of any advantage that the ungraded school 
has to offer over the graded school? 

6. Would you prefer a class of ten, or a class of 
twenty pupils; of one, or five pupils? Do you think 
district teachers can have time properly to care for so 
many classes? What was the greatest number of classes 
you ever had? Do you feel that you did justice to your- 
self and your pupils with this number? How many 
minutes do you now have for each recitation? Is it 
enough time? How many classes do you now have? 
Do you have time to make thorough daily preparation 
for all the classes ? 

7. How many times a day do you hear your primary 
pupils ? Compare a district teacher's daily program with 
a consolidated teacher's daily program. How do you ar- 
range so as to be able to give the proper time to the 
subjects of agriculture and domestic science? Criticize 
your own daily program. Do you try to outline your 
work for the larger pupils? Try to find out how many 
of the best teachers you know depend wholly on the 
question and answer method. How often do you give 
written recitations? Do you find time to grade these 
papers carefully? 

8. Why do consolidated schools keep more of the 
older children in school? Give reasons for the decline 



THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL 245 

of social advantages in the country. Name three ways 
in which consoHdation may contribute to the social life 
of a community. Make comparisons of the cost of the 
three types of rural school. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 

The rural community suffers from no greater danger 
than that of social monotony and stagnation. The nature 
of the work both in home and in field, the insistent and 
pressing toil during the greater part of the year, and 
the isolation of the farm all tend to an unvarying same- 
ness of life and experience. 

While solitude has its advantages, and while every per- 
son should have an opportunity to be alone with him- 
Danger from so- ^^^^ some portion of the time, yet 
cial stagnation change, variety and a certain degree 

of excitement are also necessary. For unrelieved routine 
finally deadens and cripples. The mind needs the stimu- 
lus of change, the shock of contact with other minds, 
the invigorating influence that comes from new objects 
of thought and association with other people. Lacking 
these, there is an inevitable tendency on the one hand 
to settle into an attitude of indifference and indolence — 
the ruts of "fogyism" ; or, on the other hand, to become 
dissatisfied and morose, impatient of one's surroundings, 
and rebellious against the fate that binds one to such 
conditions. 

The rural community as it exists at present offers few 
opportunities for social mingling in general neighborhood 
Little meeting in groups. Going to spend the day in 
social groups family visiting has declined. The old- 

246 



. .. SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 247 

time spelling schools, the debating societies and the sing- 
ing schools are no longer a part of the activities of the 
district school. The country church, the common meeting- 
place for the community, has fallen largely into disuse. 
Even the telephone, the rural mail delivery and the parcel 
post, civilizing agencies as they are, have made possible 
still further isolation; for they run the errands for the 
family, who are thus enabled to cling still more closely to 
the v^^ork of the farm. The country people do not meet 
one another face to face, discuss matters of mutual inter- 
est, laugh, talk and enjoy a good time together as people 
need to do. Their lives have a tendency to become very 
serious, their mental horizon to narrow down, and their 
outlook on the world of values to become distorted. The 
country needs some central, organizing, vivifying force 
to unite members of the community in common interests, 
friendships and social activities. Something is required 
to create and maintain a community spirit, a mutual 
feeling of pride in neighborhood welfare and progress, 
and to entice away from the humdrum care and toil to 
the restoring influence of fun and jollity. 

Particularly is the rural community lacking in social 
opportunities for young people. The social impulses, the 

c . , ^ . desire for comradeship, recreation, 

Social opportum- ^' ' 

ties lacking for fun and amusement, are as deep- 

young people seated and insistent in country boys 

and girls as in those who live in towns. Nor can these 
natural forces of human nature be any more safely ig- 
nored or repressed in the one case than in the other. 
Expression, and not repression, is the law of develop- 
ment ; and where this law is disobeyed, whether in city or 
in country, rebellion and disaster are sure to follow. 
The city is a constant lure to young people, promising 



248 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

them what it can but in a small measure fulfil. Seen at a 
distance, and through the eyes of the magazine or novel 
Social lure o£ writer, the city possesses many attrac- 

the city tions that are lacking in the coun- 

try. Even the very dangers and pitfalls, so frequently 
pictured in lurid colors in the press or on the platform, 
often constitute a dare and a challenge to youth. For the 
adolescent demands adventure ; he craves an opportunity 
to try his powers ; he longs for variety and excitement, 
and will not be satisfied with the uneventful round of 
experience that constitutes the placid daily life of his 
parents. Nor are such impulses to be deprecated and 
frowned on ; for they constitute the foundation for later 
achievement. 

Failure to recognize these fundamental impulses in 
rural young people and to provide for their expression is 
one of the most fruitful causes for the dissatisfaction of 
our boys and girls with the life of the farm. They are 
impatient of its limitations, and resentful of its monot- 
ony and sameness. Hence they turn their backs on the 
career that lies nearest to them, the one they would most 
naturally be expected to choose, and seek occupations in 
the town or city, where there is already far too large a 
proportion of our population. Nor would there be justice 
in keeping boys and girls on the farm without an oppor- 
tunity to develop the social side of their natures, even 
were it possible to do so ; for this is as much a part of 
education as the training of the intellect. 

The want of social opportunity for young people in 
the country districts is also accompanied by grave moral 
-^ - , dangers. Young people will seek one 

growing out of so- another's society ; it is natural and 
cial stagnation j-jg^t that they should. Boys have a 



SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 249 

natural tendency to form in "gangs" and clubs. If these 
organizations are given a right trend, they constitute an 
important educational influence; but if they lead in the 
wrong direction, they train the hoodlum and the crim- 
inal. 

The young men and maidens are likewise found in 
one another's company, as it is also natural and right 

, ■, . , , they should be. But the lack of social 

Lapses due to lack •' . 

of social meeting meetmg places, the absence of op- 

P^^*^^^ portunities for recreation and enter- 

tainment such as are available on every hand in the city, 
renders the association of country boys and girls un- 
natural and fraught with possibilities of danger. Instead 
of being together in social groups and hence under the 
control of the social conventions, as is largely the case in 
the city, the rural young people are thrown together in 
isolated pairs for buggy rides, or rambles along unlighted 
roads. At the same time there is nothing objective to 
demand their attention from themselves and each other 
at the very stage of development when the impulses most 
need the check of dominating objective interests and ac- 
tivities. 

The result of this poverty of social opportunity is that, 
"The country districts, which ought to be of all places the 
freest from temptation and perils to the morals of our 
young people, are really more dangerous than the cities. 
The sequel is found in the fact that a larger proportion 
of country girls than of city girls go astray. Nor is the 
rural community more successful in the morals of its 
boys than its girls. In other words, the lack of opportuni- 
ties for free and normal social experience, the consequent 
ignorance of social conventions, and the absence of 
healthful amusement and recreation, make the rural com- 



250 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

munity a most unsafe place in which to bring up a fam- 
ily." 1 

The school is the most natural and effective solution 
of the rural need for a neighborhood center. The school 
rp, h 1 th belongs to the whole people, and can 

natural social easily be made to serve the social as 

*^^"*^'^ well as the intellectual requirements 

of its constituency. Instead of ministering to a very small 
proportion of the population a few hours each day, 
twenty days in the month for a little more than half the 
year, it should be of service to all the people of its com- 
munity whenever it can serve their needs. With ade- 
quate buildings planned with such uses in mind, the 
young people will find at the school a place for their enter- 
tainments and parties ; here the older ones of the neigh- 
borhood will come for their special programs on scientific 
agriculture and home economy; here all will assemble 
for neighborhood picnics, lectures, concerts and what- 
ever else goes to add to the intellectual and social life 
of the community. 

But it is to the consolidated school that we must 

chiefly look for such service. The one-room district 

^ , , ,. school can hardly hope to minister 

Only the consolx- .,,.,. . , 

dated school equal successfully m this way to the social 

to social demands ^j^^ intellectual demands of the entire 
community. Indeed the community itself which is 
tributary to the district school is too small to carry on 
well such activities as are required in making the school 
a social center. The consolidated school, however, serv- 
ing from twenty-five to thirty square miles of territory, 
embraces a large enough population to make possible a 
real neighborhood organization. 
^ Betts, New Ideals in Rural Schools, page twenty-eight. 




The Indiana Scate Champion Basket Bail Team for the school year 
1912-1913. Wingate Consolidated School, Montgomery County, 
Indiana 




Rural high school orchestra 



SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 251 

The best proof that the consohdated school can be 
made a true social center for its territory, is the success 
that has already attended efforts made in this direction 
in various parts of the country. It has been found that 
the commodious assembly room of the centralized school 
naturally suggests and leads to lecture and entertainment 
courses ; that the large and ample grounds are the logical 
places for picnics, agricultural exhibits, and stock or grain 
judging contests; that the well equipped athletic grounds 
result in the organization of neighborhood teams for out- 
door sports, and in field days for the witnessing of ath- 
letic contests. 

I In neighborhoods where the school has been put 
to such uses, it is not necessary for the boys and girls 
to drive to some adjacent town to see ball games, or 
enjoy literary or musical entertainments. For these 
things can now be had in the home community, and better 
still, the boys and girls themselves are active participants 
instead of idle spectators, and hence a thousand times 
more interested in the occasion. Parents who were wor- 
ried at seeing their boys start from the farm home for 
the streets of the near-by town on Saturday nights or 
Sunday afternoons, look with approval and satisfaction 
on their departure for some clean and wholesome enter- 
tainment at the school center. For here there are no 
pool rooms, saloons or other dens of corruption. 

The ready response of the people of the rural com- 
munities to the school as a recreation center has been well 
Ready response typified in Winnebago County, Illinois, 
of the people where Superintendent O. J. Kern has 

organized a series of play festivals held on the school 
athletic grounds. These gala days are attended by hun- 
dreds of people from the near-by communities, who bring 



252 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

their picnic dinners and give the entire day to fun, 
froHc and a general good time. 

The program recently carried out at the festival held 
at the Harlem consolidated school is typical of all. The 
Illinois play hour fixed for assembly was nine- 

festivals thirty, and by that time the roadside 

was lined with buggies and automobiles from miles 
around. The program opened with The S tar-Spangled 
Banner played by the school band. Then came the march 
to the playgrounds, and the exercises of hoisting the flag 
over the grounds. The entire audience sang the state 
song and gave the salute to the flag. Next was the tug 
of war between boys of the competing townships, who 
fought valiantly for the honor of their teams. This was 
followed by an hour of games, for which the children 
were divided into groups in accordance with age, and led 
by their teachers, who entered as fully into the spirit 
of the occasion as the children themselves. 

Three deep, dodge ball, hill dill, and bean bag throw- 
ing occupied the smaller children. Girls from nine to 
Play-day games twelve played long ball, and sheep 
and athletic events fold; they wound the May-pole, held 
a fag relay race, and competed in basket-ball throwing. 
Boys of the same age ran in a hoop-race, and a kite- 
flying contest, a three-legged race, a leap-frog race, and 
a relay race. Still older children played games suited 
to their ages. By this time it was noon, and a monster 
dinner was set under the trees on the school grounds. 
At one-thirty began the sports of the afternoon, consist- 
ing of a field-meet open to all pupils of the rural schools 
of the district represented. The junior events included 
a fifty-yard race, high jumping, a one-hundred-and-eighty- 
yard race, the shot-put, a sixty-yard hurdle race, pole 



SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 253 

vaulting, broad jumping, the discus throw and a quarter- 
mile relay race. The senior events, which were limited 
to high-school boys, consisted of the seventy-five-yard 
dash, high jumping, a one-hundred-and-forty-yard race, 
the shot-put, a hurdle race, pole vaulting, broad jumping, 
discus throwing and a half-mile relay race. Expert offi- 
cials refereed the contests and kept records of the events. 
Prizes and trophies were given the winning schools. The 
spirit of true sportsmanship was encouraged and culti- 
vated. 

The memories of such a day are long cherished by both 
old and young. Care and toil are laid aside, and worries 

and troubles forgotten ; petty feuds 
Permanent results 1 • 1 1 1 j 1 1 • 1 

and neighborhood quarrels are buried, 

and a spirit of goodfellowship and friendship engendered ; 
and the community feeling is strengthened, and loyalty 
to country life developed. The gain to the schools them- 
selves in increased interest and support can not be esti- 
mated. 

Similarly a certain consolidated school in Indiana is 
typical of the relations existing between the consolidated 

„ . , ^ . schools and their communities in 

Social center m an . , . , , 

Indiana consoli- many other regions. This school was 

dated school opened about one year ago. Before 

that time the pupils had been distributed among four 
smaller districts now constituting the centralized school. 
Even during the erection of the new consolidated build- 
ing, the patrons manifested great interest in the school 
and often came to watch its construction. On the dedica- 
tion day, the women of the school neighborhood spread 
dinner for more than three hundred people who came to 
attend the exercises and learn about the new school. 
Immediately following the; dedicatory exercises a move- 



254 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ment was set on foot for social and literary meetings to 
be held regularly in the assembly room of the new build- 
ing. From that time to this, not less than two, and fre- 
quently as many as four, neighborhood meetings have 
been held at the school each month. On a cold night 
in February the large assembly room seating four hun- 
dred people was crowded to its capacity. The program 
opened with a short excellent literary and musical pro- 
gram given by the pupils of the school. A recess was 
then taken, and light refreshments were served from the 
domestic-science kitchen, the class having charge of the 
serving. The program was again taken up, lecturers 
from the state agricultural college speaking on various 
phases of agriculture and country life, and giving 
demonstrations. The assembly adjourned at ten o'clock, 
having spent a very profitable and pleasant evening, and 
incidentally having become firm friends of and believers 
in their consolidated school. 

At the various programs held at this school dur- 
ing the year, distinguished speakers and musicians have 

been heard and the audience room 
Social results j^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^ ^^^^ ^jj^^ ^j^j^ ^^^ 

pupils, patrons and friends of the school. There has 
been no lack of appreciation of the many good things 
presented. Scores of families who before scarcely 
knew one another's names have met and become ac- 
quainted. New friendships have been formed, old griev- 
ances obliterated, and a spirit of interest in the common 
welfare has been created. This consolidated school, had 
it done nothing more than supply a social center for its 
community, has well been worth all it cost. 

The John Swaney consolidated school of Putnam 



SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 255 

County, Illinois, is another example of a modern rural 
school serving the entire community. This school, con- 
The John Swaney Gaining laboratories, a library, man- 
school as a neigh- ual-training shops and a domestic- 
or ood center science room, has also a basement 

playroom, and a large assembly room capable of seating 
several hundred people. The school has literary societies 
organized to include every pupil from the primary room 
through the high school. These literary societies meet 
every two weeks, giving various forms of programs. 
Several times each year plays, concerts and other forms 
of school entertainments are given and the public is in- 
vited. The school also has its musical organizations, and 
a strong athletic association which includes in its mem- 
bership nearly every boy in the school. The girls like- 
wise have their athletic teams. A large wooded campus 
is arranged for all the major athletic sports. At the 
school are held almost all forms of social meetings that 
could interest a community; agricultural conferences, 
stock and grain judging contests, demonstrations and 
lectures by agricultural specialists, and club meetings of 
various sorts. There is also maintained a well-patronized 
lecture course in which the highest type of platform abil- 
ity is represented. It is needless to say that the young 
people of this community are not found drifting to the 
near-by villages and towns for their recreation and amuse- 
ment. It has also been found in consolidated-school 
communities that the trend from the country to the town 
as a place of residence has been checked, and that better 
teachers can be kept from leaving the rural schools. Of 
one thousand and one hundred cases of removal from 
country to city personally investigated by T. J. Coates, 



2S6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

supervisor of rural schools in Kentucky, more than one 

thousand were caused by a desire for better school, 

church and social advantages. 

And so we might go on describing the work being 

done by the consolidated schools in various parts of the 

country ; for those we have mentioned 
To supply a social . .• i . i ^ • 

center a chief func are m no sense exceptional, at least in 

tion of consoli- the spirit they manifest or the co- 
dated sc oo operation they win. Dozens of lec- 
ture and entertainment courses are being well supported 
in different consolidated schools, where are heard some 
of the country's most famous speakers. Statesmen pre- 
sent from the school platform the great political and 
social issues before our people. State and government 
experts come to the school center with their message of 
higher ideals and larger success for country life and 
work. Farm boys hold their corn club, and girls their 
canning and garden club, meetings at the schoolhouse. 
Here are held social functions of all kinds for the en- 
tire community. The consolidated school, as it is grow- 
ing up in the United States, is finding one of its great 
missions in supplying the neighborhood social center of 
which the country stands so greatly in need. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. Do you think the people in your school community 
take enough time for recreation and social enjoyment? 
What means of social recreation have the young peo- 
ple ? How many of them go to entertainments in near-by 
towns ? 

2. Looking over the population of your district, do 
you think the farmers and their wives are aging faster 




A consolidated building, accommodating forty-two square miles of 
territory, and maintaining a four-year high school 




A rural community centre with its consolidated school and church 



SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 257 

than they should? What, in your judgment, explains the 
fact that farmers' wives show a larger percentage of in- 
sanity than women in other occupations? 

3. To what extent is your schoolhouse used as a so- 
cial center? Could this use of the school plant be ex- 
tended? What would be necessary in the way of addi- 
tional equipment? 

4. Do you know how the young people of your com- 
munity feel about the comparative merits of country 
and town as a place to live? What are the chief points 
of attraction the town possesses for them? 

5. How many days a year is your schoolhouse ac- 
tually in use? Is it not a poor financial policy to lock 
up so large an investment the greater part of the year, 
when the school property could well be used for many 
other purposes than school work? 

6. Do you think it practicable to make the one-room 
schoolhouse serve as a neighborhood center? Do you 
think it practicable to make the consolidated school serve 
such a use in your community? 

7. To what extent do you think such social and ath- 
letic activities as those described in the chapter are a 
factor in making boys and girls satisfied with farm life? 

8. Could you teach children to play a wide range of 
games and plays ? Do you think it pays a teacher to pre- 
pare in this line? Is such knowledge worth while even 
outside of school ? Do you know the rules of games well 
enough to act as an oflEicial in judging contests? 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 

The American high school is a product of the last 
fifty years. Its forerunners in the field of secondary edu- 
r til f fVi cation, the Latin grammar school and 

American high the academy, never gained the hold on 

^•^^^^^ the affections of our people that the 

high school has attained. Neither has the elementary 
school appealed as strongly as the high school. Although 
free in their support of elementary education, the Ameri- 
can people have been doubly generous in maintaining the 
high schools. Almost every town and village boasts its 
well-equipped high school. Especially during the last 
decade has the high school increased in importance and 
power. Its attendance, now one million three hundred 
thousand, has proportionally outstripped that of the ele- 
mentary school, its curriculum has been vastly broadened 
and enriched, its buildings and equipment have become 
marvels of excellence and completeness, and the funds 
placed so liberally at its disposal have not unfrequently 
necessitated unwise economies in the support of the ele- 
mentary school. 

This rapid development in high-school education has, 
however, hardly as yet touched the rural schools. Only 

_, , . , , , here and there do we find high schools 
The high school . , , . 

still rare in as an mtegral part of rural education. 

rural communities j^^ accepted standard for the rural 

258 




By courtesy of Mr. Bcirksdalc Hamlctt, Superintendent of Piihlu- 
Instruction, State of Kentucky. 

Has not the farm boy a right to as good an education as 
the town or city boy? 



THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 259 

school has in most places been an elementary course of 
eight years. The farm child who has had an opportu- 
nity at this grade of school has been looked on as having 
all the education required, or at least all that could be 
expected. High schools have been considered out of 
reach of country districts, or as belonging only to city 
people. 

But this standard is passing — has already passed in 
many rural communities. Rural children require as much 
High-school train- education as the children of towns 
ing necessary for and cities. The demands placed on 
farm children ^j^^j^. intelligence and training in a ca- 

reer on a modern farm are at least as great as will be 
made on the average urban worker, and their ability to 
profit by this advanced education is certainly not less. 
The willingness of the rural communities to provide high- 
school education for its youth is one of the first tests of 
its right to the loyalty of the young people. The four 
years of school privileges above the elementary grades 
now so generally available to urban children must be 
similarly open to country boys and girls, else we can not 
blame them for deserting the farms for the better educa- 
tional opportunities afforded by the town. The high 
school must be free and it must be accessible to the boys 
and girls of the farm. 

The high school is not yet free to the majority of rural 

children, even if they are willing to go to town for their 

^ , . , , , high-school training. In many states 

Free high schools ° ° ■: 

not generally ac- the rural youth must himself pay a 

cessible tuition of from three to five dollars a 

month if he attends the nearest town high school. His dis- 
trict disclaims all responsibility for his education after 
he completes the elementary school. Some states, as 



26o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Iowa, for example, have recently provided that graduates 
of rural schools may attend the nearest high school, the 
district to pay the tuition fees. But in the Iowa law, 
reasonable as the demand on the district is, the liability 
is limited to three dollars and fifty cents a month, any 
amount in excess of this devolving on the pupil. 

But even where the rural district freely pays the tui- 
tion in the town high school, such a situation is far from 
satisfactory. The high-school training afforded rural 
children should be in rural high schools and not in town 
and city schools. Not only in curriculum but in spirit 
and in teaching, the rural high school should represent 
the life and activities of the farm. If the rural high 
school is to maintain an adequate standard of efficiency, 
if it is to serve its patronage aright, it must take into 
its program of studies training in the concrete affairs 
awaiting its graduates. There are at present more than 
two thousand public and private high schools in the 
United States teaching agriculture, but comparatively 
few of these have actual country environment, most 
of them being situated in towns and cities. Such is 
also true of the more than one hundred special agricul- 
tural schools of secondary grade located in seventeen 
different states. While the agricultural courses taught 
in the city school are valuable as educational material 
and well worth while from the standpoint of general 
culture and development, yet of necessity they lack the 
vitality and concreteness possessed by similar courses 
taught with an immediate environment of farm life and 
conditions. In the reorganization of rural education 
that is now going on, therefore, there must be definite 
provision for the installation of high schools as a part 
of the rural system. 




Judging cattle at a rural school 




Judging horses at a rural school 



THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 261 

The rural high school is a natural outgrowth of the 

movement toward consolidation. It need hardly be 

_ , , . , , , aro:ued that the one-room school can 

Rural high schools *= , . , , , 

follow consoli- never support a high-school course, 

<i^ti°" nor ought it under any circumstances 

to undertake the teaching of high-school branches, except 
in rare instances where a number of the elementary 
grades are lacking from want of younger children in at- 
tendance. It has been almost uniformly found that the 
consolidating of a number of elementary schools into one 
school has brought about a demand for the introduction 
of high-school subjects. Hence a large majority of the 
fully consolidated schools are now offering two or even 
four years of high-school work. Not a few of the con- 
solidated rural schools in Indiana, Ohio and many other 
states, are fully equal in the scope and character of the 
curriculum and in the quality of teaching to the best 
town and city schools. The rural high schools in such 
communities are recognized by the colleges and universi- 
ties, and their graduates are accepted on the same terms 
as those from urban schools. 

It may therefore be concluded that the policy of con- 
solidation ultimately commits to the introduction of rural 
high schools as a part of the system. This is natural 
and right, since consolidation not only encourages the reg- 
ularity of attendance that allows completion of an ele- 
mentary course preparatory to the high school, but also 
provides the type of curriculum and teaching necessary 
for such preparation. Further, the educational standards 
of communities supporting consolidated schools demand 
opportunities for high-school education for their children. 

Certain regions, as in Illinois, have developed the town- 
ship system of high schools independently of consolida- 



262 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

tion. Many of these township secondary schools are of 
high grade, fully the equal of town and city schools ; in- 
The township high deed, not a few of them are conducted 
school not the in some convenient town or city of 

the township and are in effect not 
rural high schools at all. They offer the traditional high- 
school course of study, are governed by the typical urban 
high-school spirit, which looks not toward farming but 
to other lines of occupation, and are therefore not the 
type of secondary education most useful to rural com- 
munities. 

In other sections of the country, county high schools 
prevail, the county supporting one secondary school open 
-,, t h' h ^° ^^^ qualified residents within the 

school not ac- county. The county high school can 

cessible ]^g approved only as a temporary ex- 

pedient to supply secondary education at a time when the 
economic ability is not equal to the burden of supporting 
high schools available to every community. In order to 
be wholly efficient, the high school must, like the ele- 
mentary school, be brought to the door of those for whom 
it is intended — and must not require traveling half-way 
across a county in order to obtain its advantages. Nor 
must it demand that the pupil leave his home and enter 
the school as a boarding-school. To be truly a school 
of the people the rural high school must be connected 
with the rural elementary school, which is equivalent to 
saying that it will become a part of the consolidated 
school of the future. 

The rural high school should not only be situated in 
the country, away from the town and city, but must in 
fact be a country school. Its curriculum, while as thor- 
ough and comprehensive as that of any standard high 



THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 263 

school, should be different from the curriculum of the 
town high school. For the rural high school must be es- 
The curriculum of sentially a vocational school, prepar- 
the rural high ing for the occupations of the farm 

^^^°°^ and the farm home, instead of for the 

college and the profession. The core of the curriculum 
will therefore be industrial and scientific, and not linguis-* 
tic and mathematical. 

The course of study of the state agricultural high 

T • . . 1 schools of Louisiana indicates a re- 
Louisiana agricul- 
tural high-school cent hopeful trend in rural high 
course schools : 

^K SUBJECTS ^W' Semesters 
Week ^"^^° 

I Agriculture (boys) 3 2 

Shop and field practise 

(boys) 4 2 

Sewing (girls) 3 2 

Cooking (girls) 4 2 

English 5 I 

United States History 5 I 

Medieval and Modern His- 
tory 5 I 

Farm Arithmetic 5 2 

Botany 4 2 

Drawing I 2 

Music I 2 

n Soils and Fertilizers (boys) . . 3 I 

Farm and Crops (boys) .... 3 I 

Shop and field practise (boys) 4 2 

Mechanical Drawing (boys) 2 I 



264 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Periods c 1. 
Year Subjects Per Semesters 
Week ^■^<^" 

Sewing (girls) 2 2 

Food Study (girls) i 2 

Cooking (girls) 4 2 

History 2 i 

English 5 2 

Algebra 5 2 

Entomology 3 i 

Zoology 5 I 

Horticulture 3 i 

Drawing i 2 

Music I 2 

ni Farm Animals (boys) 5 2 

Field practise (boys) 6 2 

Physiology (girls) 5 i 

Sewing (girls) 2 2 

Cooking (girls) 2 2 

English 3 2 

Ancient History 3 i 

Plane Geometry 4 2 

Chemistry 5 2 

Horticulture (landscape) . . . i i 

Poultry 3 I 

Drawing I 2 

Music I 2 

IV Agricultural Engineering 

(boys) 5 I 

Field practise (boys) 6 2 

Farm Management (boys) . . 5 I 



THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 265 

rr " ^ Periods Semesters 
Year Subjects Per Vxivpn 
[ Week '-'"^e" 

Dietetics (girls) 5 i 

Household management 

(girls) 5 I 

Cooking and Sewing (girls) . 6 2 

English 3 2 

Physics 5 2 

Farm Bookkeeping 3 I 

Rural Law 5 ^ 

Dairying 3 I 

Drawing I 2 

Music I 2 

Colebrook Academy, in New Hampshire, is a typical 

New England rural high school reorganized to meet the 

;-, . , , needs of its community. Its agricul- 

Curnculum of , , 

Colebrook tural course for boys enumerates the 

Academy following subjects : English, advanced 

arithmetic, agronomy, farm mechanics, carpentry, prac- 
tical mathematics, animal husbandry and dairying, farm 
blacksmithing, physics, horticulture, road building, for- 
estry, American constitutional history, chemistry, rural 
economy and farm management, and physiography. 

The domestic-arts course for girls offers the following 
studies ; English, advanced arithmetic, sewing, cooking, 
ancient history, dressmaking, millinery, designing, biology, 
French, household design and decoration, household me- 
chanical appliances, household sanitation and hygiene, 
physics, American history, chemistry, dietaries, nursing, 
and household economics. 

It is to be observed that neither of these schools re- 



266 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

quires Latin or solid geometry of either sex, and that 
algebra, even, is not required of girls in the latter school. 
Disciplinary sub- '^^^ traditional disciplinary subjects 
jects omitted are supplanted by concrete and prac- 

tical studies related to occupational interests. The Eng- 
lish language and literature, however, are studied the 
entire four years, and history occupies an important 
place in the curriculum. The study of music and art is 
not provided for in the New England school, which 
probably offers the chief ground for criticism of the 
course. 

The equipment for the rural high school should be 
wholly adequate to the demands to be placed on it. 
Equipment of the Many of the high schools connected 
rural high school with the stronger consolidated schools 
now have buildings, laboratories, gymnasiums, baths and 
other necessary accessories quite the equal of those of 
the city schools. And this is as it should be. Where 
right business methods are employed in consolidating 
the school, and in arranging for the bonds and levying 
the tax, the burden is no heavier on the rural community 
than on the town district. Nor is the expense of main- 
taining the school after it is established greater in pro- 
portion to the taxable property than in most cities, and 
it is considerably less than in many. 

The rural high schools already in existence have been 
so successful as abundantly to prove the feasibility and 

„ , , wisdom of their extension. Such 

Examples of suc- 
cessful rural high schools several miles from the near- 
schools gg^. tQY^rn or village in the state of In- 
diana carry on the full set of secondary-school activities 
with at least as great enthusiasm and efficiency as would be 
found in any urban high school in the land. Not only 



THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 267 

is the scholarship of the highest rank, but the graduates 
receive their full share of honors when they enter on 
a course in higher institutions. These rural high schools 
have their literary societies, dramatic organizations, de- 
bating clubs, orchestras, and all else that goes to sup- 
plement on the social side in the regular program of the 
modern school. The rural high-school boys have shown 
athletic ability that may well excite the envy of the 
city athletic teams ; the basket-ball team of a rural high 
school in Indiana recently held the state championship 
against all competitors. Other states where equally 
strong rural high schools have been established can show 
as good results in all these lines. 

An excellent example of a typical rural high school is 
shown by the Farragut school in Tennessee. This school 
The Farragut stands in the open country one and 

high school one-half miles from Concord, a vil- 

lage of some three hundred people. The school building 
is a two-story brick with basement. It has a complete 
water and plumbing system, owns twelve acres of land 
and has cost the community some seventeen thousand 
dollars. The building gives room for a full complement 
of laboratories for the teaching of science, agriculture, 
home economics and manual training. The water for 
the building comes from a large spring some distance 
away and is pumped by a double-acting rifle ram driven 
by a near-by creek. This spring water is delivered to 
tanks in the attic whence it is conveyed to all parts of the 
building, to the principal's home near by, and to the 
school barn. Drinking fountains are located in all halls 
and in the lunch rooms, which are provided separately 
for each sex. Well-equipped lavatories and toilet rooms 
are found in the building, and the laboratories have wash- 



268 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

bowls and sinks. Shower baths for both sexes are in- 
stalled in basement rooms and the water is carried away 
by sewer pipes into the creek. Six acres are devoted to 
buildings, playgrounds and decorative flower gardens. 
The other six acres of the school plat are used for demon- 
stration purposes for agriculture. The school employs 
a man the year round to serve as janitor, and caretaker 
of the school farm. 

The school offers a fully organized course in agricul- 
ture, including the care and breeding of stock. A flock 
of chickens is maintained and used in teaching this 
phase of animal husbandry. Although the high school 
offers a college preparatory course, ninety per cent, of the 
pupils are taking agriculture, manual training and the 
home-economics course. The attendance at the school 
has nearly tripled within the last four years since the 
vocational courses were added. As an important part 
of the school's social organization, there is held once 
each month what is called a "moonlight social." An 
interesting program is given consisting of lectures along 
some phase of farm life, music, games and other social 
features. Occasionally athletic events are held at the 
school, the entire neighborhood participating. The stu- 
dents of the school also give a dramatic performance 
each year at commencement time. 

A similar agricultural high school was opened at 
Manassas, Virginia, in 1908. Here also twelve acres of 
The Manassas ground are included in the lawn, play- 

high school grounds, demonstration plots and gar- 

dens, with four acres devoted to demonstration work. 
The rural life of the community is organized about this 
school as a center. The work during the school year is 
only a part of the varied activities of the school, all 



THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 269 

students carrying out different home projects in agricul- 
ture as a part of their regular school requirement. The 
high school fully maintains its standard among urban 
high schools of its locality. It is offering for the first 
time this year a normal course designed to prepare 
teachers for the rural schools, and especially to give 
them preparation in agriculture and domestic science. 
In connection with the high school are given winter 
short courses in agriculture and stock raising which are 
largely attended by the farmers of the vicinity. Short 
farmers' institutes are also held on the school grounds 
with addresses and demonstrations given by experts from 
agricultural schools and colleges. The domestic-science 
classes have been utilized in serving lunches to visitors 
and patrons on gala days, thus gaining practise for them- 
selves and still further interesting the community in their 
school work. It is freely admitted that this high school 
is doing more than any other factor of its locality to 
break up the isolation and social monotony of the rural 
community, and replace it with a neighborhood spirit 
of cooperation and good-will. 

As an illustration of some of the practical activities 
of the school, there are made in the laboratory each year 
some two hundred tests of milk and cream coming from 
the farms of the community. Before a farmer buys a 
cow, he obtains a sample of her milk and sends it to the 
school for a test. Cream shippers are also asking for 
tests of their cream in order to make sure of its passing 
the inspector. Growing out of such work, the neigh- 
borhood has organized a cow-testing association of about 
a dozen enterprising dairymen, who have stopped guess- 
ing about their stock and insist on knowing by means of 
scientific measurements. 



270 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

The principal of the school, who is a graduate of one 
of the leading agricultural colleges, is constantly called 
Loyalty of the ^^ ^^^ ^^^ judgment concerning flow- 

patrons ers, trees, shrubs and the insect ene- 

mies of the region. His advice is sought with reference 
to the rotation of crops, drainage, stock and all other 
matters connected with the agricultural interests of the 
community. All these things go to indicate the intimate 
connection which has been set up between the school 
and its patrons. The farmers have come to recognize 
the school as their own, and both its future and its use- 
fulness are now fully assured. 

Scores of similar illustrations from different sections 
of the country could be given to show the part that may 
Outlook for the ^^ played by the high school in rural 
rural high school life and education. Wherever the 
high school has been installed as part of the rural sys- 
tem, it has rapidly grown in favor among its constituency, 
and has gained a permanent hold on their loyalty and 
support. Once the farming community comes to see the 
necessity and value of secondary education for its chil- 
dren, the country child will have as favorable an oppor- 
tunity for high-school training as the city child. Only 
when this has been accomplished will our system of 
rural schools have fulfilled their obligation to the chil- 
dren of the farms. For only then will the country boys 
and girls have available the amount and type of educa- 
tion necessary for a successful career, and requisite to 
a full development of their own powers and capacities. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

I. What proportion of the boys and girls in your 
township between fourteen and twenty-one years of age 



THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 271 

either are in high school, or have had a high-school edu- 
cation? Why is not the proportion larger? 

2. How many boys from your township have in the 
last five years attended a town high school ? How many 
of them plan to take up farming as a vocation? Is it 
true that the town high school leads away from the 
farm ? 

3. Do country children in your locality have their tui- 
tion paid by the district, if the district has no high school 
of its own? Is there any reason why graduates of rural 
schools should not have high schooling supplied at pub- 
lic expense, as well as town children ? 

4. What is your judgment of the high-school course 
outlined in the chapter? Does such a course supply as 
thorough an education as the ordinary town high-school 
course ? 

5. Latin as a requirement is rapidly dropping out of 
many high-school courses. Do you believe that this is 
a mistake ? 

6. Count the number of boys and girls in your 
township who have now quit school, but who probably 
would have had a high-school education had a rural high 
school been available. 

7. Account for the fact that well-established consoli- 
dated schools almost always result in the addition of a 
high school as a part of the consolidated school. 

8. What advantage can you urge for rural high 
schools like those described in the chapter against town 
or city high schools as a place to educate farm boys 
and girls? What disadvantages? Do you think country 
boys and girls are to be blamed for tiring of the average 
rural school ? 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE CONSOLIDATED BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 

Consolidation is resulting in better buildings and 

equipment than have heretofore belonged to rural educa- 

^ .... . tion. First of all, the building must 

Consolidation is . a i , i 

improving m nearly all cases be new. And school 

buildings standards and schoolhouse architec- 

ture have advanced to the point where a certain disgrace 
is coming to be felt by those who favor or condone in- 
adequate or unsuitable buildings or equipment. The con- 
solidated school usually serves a territory large enough to 
supply a reasonable amount of money for school pur- 
poses without making the tax burdensome. It represents 
a constituency progressive in school affairs, and hence 
desirous of securing the best their means will afford for 
their children. The consolidated buildings therefore 
show a vast improvement over the old type of country 
schoolhouses. 

One of the most frequent mistakes being made in erect- 
ing consolidated buildings to-day is in making them too 
Many still small. It is thought that the rural 

too small population, unlike the city population, 

is not likely to increase, and that therefore the build- 
ing capable of accommodating the present children of 
the territory will be adequate for the future. Almost 
universally, however, it has been found that the con- 

272 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 



273 







274 BETTER RURAL! SCHOOLS 

solidated school attracts from twenty-five to fifty per 
cent, more pupils than were enrolled in the district schools 
of the same territory. It is always necessary on this ac- 
count to plan for a considerably larger number than those 
belonging to the abandoned schools. Many districts have 
found that within two or three years after starting a con- 
solidated school the accommodations first provided are 
wholly inadequate for the number who desire to attend. 
County superintendents and other school officials in 
counties that are leading in consolidation say that over 

,_ , .,,. one-half of the first consolidated 

Many buildings re- , , , r , 

constructed to se- schoolhouses erected have been found 
cure more room inadequate in size within the first 
three years. In one northern county five of the best 
consolidated buildings were reconstructed during the 
year 1913 for the sole purpose of securing more room. 
Not only had the pupils overcrowded the rooms, but addi- 
tional space was required for the constantly growing 
classes in agriculture, domestic science and manual train- 
ing. Two of these five buildings were built over for the 
second time within the last five years. Of course this 
represents poor economy and lack of foresight on the part 
of those who planned the buildings. Architects and con- 
tractors find that it costs approximately twice as much 
to add a certain amount of room to an old building as to 
incorporate the same amount when the building is being 
erected. One consolidated district reports that a four- 
room building which was erected in 1908 at a cost of 
fourteen thousand dollars has recently been enlarged at 
an additional cost of fifteen thousand dollars in order to 
accommodate one-third more pupils. Another district 
has just expended fifteen thousand dollars in enlarging 
a ten-thousand-dollar building. 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 



275 




2'j6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Not only is the increased attendance in the elementary 

school to be anticipated and provided for, but it is well to 

mL I.- 1. 1. -i ^ look forward to the starting: of a 
The high school to ° 

be anticipated in high school, even if none seems pos- 
building gji^ig jj^ t]^g immediate future. For 

most of the better located consolidated schools will finally 
add the high school. This has been the history of the 
matter wherever the consolidated schools have secured a 
good footing. It is not necessary, of course, to provide 
room in a building now being erected, for a high school 
that exists only as a cherished dream which can not be 
realized for some years to come. It is often possible by 
a little foresight, however, so to plan the present building 
that additions can be attached when occasion requires 
without marring the symmetry or reducing the efficiency 
of the structure. Architects gladly take such contingen- 
cies into account, and provide for their later consumma- 
tion when drawing their plans. 

The first requisite in planning for a consolidated build- 
ing is to give it ample grounds. Such a school is usually 
Necessity for located where sufficient room can be 

ample grounds had and where there is no need for 

economizing to the point of parsimony in the amount se- 
cured. The area of the grounds will, of course, need to 
depend on the number of districts being consolidated, and 
the size of the proposed new school. It is safe to say, 
however, that the consolidated school should always com- 
mand at least three acres of ground, and usually as much 
as five. When the school includes a high school where 
courses in agriculture are taught, still more ground will 
be required, especially if demonstration and experimental 
work are to be carried on at the school. Ten or twelve 
acres will then not prove too much for school gardens, 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 



277 




II 



C iT 



2^ 



< 5 



_ -to 



."1 



278 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

agriculture, decorative shrubbery and trees, playgrounds 
and athletics. 

Wherever possible, the consolidated building should 
be of a permanent type, constructed of brick, or stuccoed 
B *ld' t be ^^^^' instead of wood. This is not only 

of permanent a measure of safety for the children, 

material ^^^^ [^ jg jj^ ^.j^g j^j^g j.^^ ^ rnatter of 

economy. The difference in painting, deterioration and 
insurance rates will pay large interest on the additional 
first cost. The floors should be of maple or oak, and the 
woodwork of oak. The blackboards should invariably 
be of slate and the walls finished sanded instead of 
smooth, ready for tinting. In no case should stairs be 
built of inflammable material, no matter what the con- 
struction of the remainder of the building. Lives are too 
precious to run the slightest risk of trapping the children 
in case of fire. Fire-escapes of ample size and approved 
type should be provided for all buildings of more than 
one story. 

The equipment of the consolidated school, like the 
building, must be determined by local conditions. It 

Mistake of econo- ^°^^ ^^^^^^^ '^y^"^' ^o^ever, that 
mizing in equip- the equipment must be wholly ade- 
™®'^* quate to the work undertaken by the 

school. It is poor policy to economize upon the tools 
necessary for doing the school work. Each room should 
have a full complement of charts, maps, globes and the 
apparatus demanded in its studies. Dictionaries and ref- 
erence books suited to the advancement of the pupils 
should be freely provided. Supplemental readers should 
be supplied for every grade. A well-stocked library of 
general reading should be one of the first considerations. 
It is manifestly impossible to lay down any rule for the 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 



279 




28o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

size and cost of consolidated buildings any more than 
for town or city buildings. These questions will depend 
on the use to be made of the building, and the financial 
ability of the district. Consolidated schools are being 
conducted in buildings running all the way from three 
thousand to seventy-five thousand dollars or more, and 
containing all the way from two to ten or twelve rooms. 

A somewhat more detailed consideration of certain 
types of consolidated buildings will be instructive. 

The better class of three-teacher consolidated school 
buildings now being erected may be described somewhat 
The three-teacher ^^ follows: The building rests on a 
building concrete foundation forty by one hun- 

dred feet, and has a cemented and finished basement 
under all. The schoolrooms are good size, about twenty- 
five by thirty feet, and are lighted from one side and 
high windows at the rear. The seating is of the most 
modern type, all seats adjustable for size, and supported 
on a single iron pedestal. The assembly room is thirty- 
two by forty-two feet, and seats some two hundred and 
fifty people without the adjacent class rooms, which are 
connected with the assembly room by folding doors, so 
that the entire floor space can be thrown together if de- 
sired. The assembly room seats are movable, and can 
be taken out or moved to the walls if occasion demands. 
The hallway is twelve by thirty feet, and has in it two 
flowing drinking fountains. Cloak-rooms are provided 
separately for boys and girls. The interior closets and 
lavatories are of approved hygienic type. An office is 
provided for the principal, and a telephone installed for 
the convenience of the school and patrons. 

Library shelves are built into the walls, and protected 
by glass doors fitted with excellent locks. Enclosed 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 



281 




282 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

shelves are also provided for dinner pails, where they will 
be free from dust and safe from freezing. 

The blackboards are equal in length to fully half the 
perimeter of the room, and are of slate. Electric signal 
bells connect all the class rooms with the principal's office 
and with the assembly room, so that classes may be 
moved or the school dismissed in unison. 

The basement contains a furnace and fuel room, a 

playroom, domestic-science kitchen and manual-training 

shop. While such a provision may be 

The basement r ^i n 11- 

necessary for the smaller schools, it 

is doubtful whether the basement is the best location for 
the work in domestic science. Whenever possible this 
laboratory should be on one of the main floors of the 
building, and possess at least as good lighting and ventila- 
tion as any class room. The walls in the basement rooms 
are tinted with a light color in order to increase the light. 
The stairs into the basement are of iron and cement, low 
risers and broad tread, and well protected by banisters. 
Exits are provided from the basement directly out-of- 
doors, so that pupils can go to or from their work with- 
out passing through the upper rooms. This arrangement 
is also a necessary safeguard against danger from fire, 
and should never be omitted in the plans for a building. 

The heating plant of this building consists of a simple 
gravity furnace of generous size for the space to be 
heated. This avoids the necessity for 
^ crowding the furnace on cold days, 

and thereby both scorching the air in the schoolrooms and 
burning out the furnace. The furnace is so set as to 
favor the north and west sides of the building, which are 
most exposed to winter winds. 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 



283 




o 

o 

_I 
u_ 

a 

z: 
o 
u 



284 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

The water supply comes from a deep driven well, and 
is delivered to the schoolroom fountains by means of 
a force pump and a pressure tank 
which is installed as part of the sys- 
tem. A number of firms now supply such apparatus, the 
whole system, including the fountain, costing less than 
one hundred dollars if the well is close to the building. 
The same system delivers water to the lavatories and 
toilets, hence considerable pumping is required. In some 
instances a small gasoline engine is used for this work. 

The school building is provided with an acetylene light- 
ing plant, with burners in each room, and an abundance 
of light for the assembly room. All 
^^ * S y furniture, shades and other equipment 

of the school are in first-class repair. A full supply of 
apparatus for elementary work in science, agriculture, 
domestic science and manual training has been provided. 
This building and its equipment cost the district about 
twelve thousand dollars with the ground. 

The building which is to accommodate a four or five- 
teacher school will need to follow the same general prin- 
ciples in its construction as the smaller buildings, and will 
not require separate discussion. The primary considera- 
tion in starting the erection of any type of structure is to 
see that the officials who have the building in charge are 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of progress, and have 
such information concerning modern standards as will 
fully convert them from the old type of schoolhouse as 
their criterion. 

When more than five teachers are required in the con- 
solidated building, the structure will then not be far dif- 
The larger ferent from that of town or city 

buildings schoolhouses of the same size. Wher- 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 285 

ever the high school is added to the consoHdated school, 
not less than five class rooms in addition to the assembly 
room should be provided. It is better to have six, or even 
seven, so that divisions of grades can be made as re- 
quired. 

Whenever the consolidated building required is large 
enough to add a gymnasium in the basement this should 
be done. Recent buildings intended 
for from eight to ten teachers, includ- 
ing the high school, provide a gymnasium forty by fifty 
feet, fourteen feet in height. The usual apparatus is in- 
stalled, taking care that both sexes are included in the 
provision made. School officials should hesitate long to 
erect a consolidated building which is to house a high 
school as well as the grades, without a spacious gymna- 
sium as a part of the equipment. 

If it seems that the buildings and equipment discussed 

for the consolidated school are expensive, it must be 

01- 1 u Mj- taken into account that all building is 

School buildings ** 

growing more now much more costly than when the 

*^°^^^y buildings at present- in use were 

erected. This is true both because of the increased cost 
of materials and labor, and because higher standards of 
excellence are demanded. The average one-room build- 
ing erected in the Middle West ten or fifteen years ago 
cost from five to eight hundred dollars. Very few one- 
room buildings are now being put up in this same region 
for less than twenty-five hundred to three thousand 
dollars. 

It is further to be understood that if the practical 
laboratory subjects are to be added to the curriculum, 
larger and more expensive buildings and equipment 
must be provided. As long as education consisted solely 



286 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

of teaching children from books, a simple schoolroom 

equipped with desks set close in rows was all that was 

_, required. But when education is con- 

The newer . 

branches increase ceived as learnmg thmgs by actually 
the expense doing them, further room and equip- 

ment are demanded. A worse mistake could hardly be 
made than to require the teaching of agriculture, manual 
training or domestic science, and then expect them to be 
taught under the same conditions and with the same 
equipment that have served for training from books. 

The financial burden involved in erecting and equipping 
a new consolidated building often appears greater than it 
Taxation burden really is, and not infrequently deters 
not over heavy from beginning the enterprise when it 

would not if the facts were better understood. The area 
of an average consolidated district may fairly be taken 
at twenty-five square miles. The value of all taxable 
property of such a district will, in most parts of the 
United States, easily reach from five hundred thousand 
to one and a half million dollars. Now it is evident that 
if the district decides to erect a fifteen-thousand-dollar 
building the tax rate required to meet the expense will, in 
the latter instance, be ten mills. If fifteen-year bonds 
are sold at five per cent., the approximate increase of 
school tax will need to be only about one mill annually. 
This on an eighty-acre farm and its equipment will surely 
not seriously embarrass any farmer. Especially does this 
seem a moderate amount to pay for improved school 
privileges when it is known that the increased school tax 
rate occasioned by the erection of new buildings reaches 
as much as five mills in many towns and cities in all 
parts of the country. 

The matter of choosing a suitable location is one which 



BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT 



287 




De-sicN (^ 



PLAH OP suPERIMTETiDEMTS OFFICE 
AMD MIDWAY LANDING 



288 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

should not be passed by lightly. For this type of build- 
ing is a somewhat permanent structure. The average 
The site for a con- district building can be moved and re- 
solidated school moved, but not so with the consoli- 
dated building. Its site, therefore, should be selected 
with the future as well as the present in mind. The 
grounds must be ample, well drained and sanitary in 
every particular. All undesirable industries, railroad 
crossings, dangerous streams, gravel banks and quarries 
must be out of easy reach of the children. 

A few shade trees and a fertile soil are desirable but 
not essential requirements, for they can be had in the 

Donations not to ^°^^^'^ °^ ^ ^^^ ^^^^^ O" ^^"^^^^ ^"^ 
influence selection site. The location should be the most 

^**® convenient and accessible one. In no 

case should some selfish freeholder be allowed to deter- 
mine the choice of the site by offering to give an acre or 
two of ground, either conditionally or unconditionally. 
Altogether too large a percentage of the district schools 
have been located and are now controlled by this type of 
philanthropist. The consolidated school must not in any 
way be under obligations to one or two individuals. Nor 
should it be situated adjacent to a country church if there 
is the least danger of jealousy arising on this account. 
If no such feeling exists there may even be some advan- 
tage in having the church and the school near together. 

An artistic and well constructed school building, erected 
in a spirit of unity and cooperation, is a source of 
Value to com- strength to any community. It en- 

"lunity genders a sense of local pride, and a 

feeling of common neighborhood interests, even if it 
requires something of sacrifice in its erection. What it 
costs in increased taxation is more than compensated for 



BUILDING ANC EQUIPMENT 289 

in tfie satisfaction of seeing the children well and hygi- 
enically housed, and the school provided with all facilities 
for efficient work. The building of such a structure con- 
stitutes not an outlay, but an investment for any commu- 
nity, and is never afterward regretted. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. How do you account for the fact that the consoli- 
dated building is almost always built from better material 
and more adequately equipped than are the district 
schools in the near-by communities? About how many 
square miles do the consolidated buildings accommodate ? 

2. Try to find out what per cent, of children of school 
age are now enrolled in your district schools and what 
per cent, are enrolled in your consolidated schools. Make 
a study of those pupils who are now out of school and 
who have not completed the elementary work. Compare 
consolidated territory with the territory served by the 
district schools. 

3. Can larger and better buildings alone be depended 
on to attract more of the older pupils to the school? 
Why do they help secure better teachers ? Is your build- 
ing too small ? Describe your home school building as to 
plans and architecture. How much did it cost ? 

4. What additions or changes as to building plans 
would you suggest for your school building? Make 
drawings for a one-teacher building and for a three- 
teacher building. What improvements would you offer 
to the plans shown in the chapter? What per cent, of 
the rural school buildings have made provisions for the 
proper teaching of agriculture and domestic science? 

5. Do you know what would be the approximate cost 
of building a modern five-teacher building in your local- 
ity? Try to ascertain how much it would cost the aver- 
age farmer who owns eighty acres of land to pay his 
share for such a building. Then try to find out what it 



290 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

would cost to equip this building with everything com- 
plete and modern. 

6. What additional provisions should be made in the 
matter of building and equipment for the teaching of 
agriculture? What are some of the conditions that 
should be considered by those selecting the school site? 
Discuss the matter of accepting ground from interested 
patrons on which to locate the building. Why should the 
consolidated school frequently not be located near a 
church ? 



CHAPTER XIX 

HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 

All true progress grows out of consciously felt wants. 
The first step in effecting consolidation of schools in any 
community is the creation of a deep-seated desire for 
better rural schools. Once this is accomplished, the re- 
form will grow of its own accord, supported by the de- 
mand of the people themselves, instead of being forced 
upon them from without. 

Supplemental to the desire for better schools must 
also be the conviction that the old type of district school 
Factors interfering can not serve the new and better pur- 
with consolidation pose demanded. For the old one- 
room district school has become so deeply rooted in the 
hearts of the people, and its unquestioning acceptance 
become so much a part of their mental constitution, that 
it will not be given up without a struggle. Indeed a ma- 
jority vote is not infrequently registered against the 
abandonment of the old school when to every fair mind 
it has become clear that the school is accomplishing 
inferior work, and is behind the times in every particular. 
The combination of inherited love, blind faith and ill- 
founded sentiment attached to the "little red school- 
house" often outweighs the desire for the better ad- 
vantages and increased efficiency which only the consoli- 
dated school can fully give. 

291 



292 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Again there are those who are wholly indifferent to 
the school and to education, whose only care is to reduce 
Dollars versus ^^^ expenditure for school sup- 

education port to the lowest possible limit. 

With them, the first, last and only question is one 
of cost, and the best school is the one that is cheapest. 
Their philosophy of life is such that they can not measure 
values except in terms of dollars and cents, and they 
have a narrow outlook even in this direction. They are 
the ultraconservatives, against all progress in education, 
and hostile to consolidation unless it can be proved a 
cheaper system. 

And among even the less sordid of the rural-school 

patronage are many voters so blinded by prejudice or 

_. , . ^ lack of perspective that they imagine 

False virtues as- . , .. . . 

cribed to district there is good rather than evil in the 

school shortcomings and weakness of the 

little country school. They claim for it a kind of pecu- 
liar and superior advantage not acceded to the larger 
consolidated school or the town school. Its very meager- 
ness and poverty are ascribed to it as a virtue which, in 
some mysterious way, is supposed to result in a better 
education. Exposure to all sorts of weather, trudging 
through rain and snow, across plowed fields or over 
muddy roads, and sitting in an ugly, ill-heated and poorly 
ventilated schoolroom are supposed to be a part of the 
process of making illustrious men and women! 

Then there are those who saw the little old school- 
house built and have watched the development of the 
Sentiment for neighborhood school. It was here 

the old school that they received their own meager 

education, and here their children have gone to school. 
Jhey regard the school as a local institution, and look 



HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 293 

upon it with something of the feeling a college student 
has for his alma mater. To them it would be a real 
shock to see the old school abandoned. Such a catastro- 
phe would break up the established order of things, for 
they have become accustomed to the school as a part of 
their environment, and to lose it would cause the same 
void as if the sun should desert the sky, or the seasons 
forget their procession. 

Still others hold that, since the rural school has been 
good enough for themselves and their ancestors, it must 

_, ., ^ of necessity be good enough for their 

Failure to see , ,, , •'_, ^ , , 

that times children. These are the ones who 

have changed have not caught the spirit of the age. 

They do not realize that standards have advanced, and 
that what served one generation may leave the next 
handicapped. They pride themselves on not being fad- 
dists, never realizing their own hopeless stagnation. This 
is one of the most difficult classes to convert, since a con- 
dition of satisfaction with one's achievements or posses- 
sions is fatal to all progress. 

All such traditional notions and beliefs, and all such 
blindness, indifference and selfishness militate against the 

T J .J establishment of the consolidated 

Leaders misunder- 
stood and mis- school. For the consolidated school 

judged must come to serve these very ones 

who are so thoroughly saturated with false ideals of edu- 
cation and so deeply steeped in conservatism. It is 
therefore no easy task that confronts the leader in edu- 
cation who starts a campaign for the abandonment of 
the district schools, and the founding in their stead of 
consolidated schools. For this leader is sure to encounter 
hostility and opposition. His judgment will be ques- 
tioned, his plans misunderstood and his motives im- 



294 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

pugned. To be successful, he must be sure of his ground, 
steadfast in his purpose, and resourceful and wise in his 
method. 

Before attempting to consolidate the schools of a com- 
munity the leaders in charge should make certain that 
Conditions funda- ^^° fundamental questions cail be 
mental to con- answered in the affirmative: (i) 

solidation -y^ju ^^^ physical conditions in the 

territory concerned permit the transportation of pupils 
who live beyond easy walking distances; and (2) is it 
possible for the community to meet the financial obliga- 
tions necessary for the building and equipping of the 
new school? It is also important to know, (3) whether 
the right to abandon the single-teacher schools, to levy 
necessary taxes, to build and equip the new school rests 
with district, township or county officials, or with the 
voters of the school units concerned. 

Much time and effort are wasted, and occasionally 
harm done by opening a campaign for consolidation 
--. , - when the conditions are not ripe for 

tempting the im- such a movement, or when the situa- 
possible ^Jqj^ demands different methods from 

those employed. There are certain districts here and 
there that will not at present admit of consolidation. The 
topography may be such that transportation is out of the 
question, and the children would be forced to walk long 
distances or depend on furnishing their own conveyance. 
In either instance the consolidated school would operate 
under a severe handicap, and could not hope to be wholly 
successful. Bad roads are also a serious obstacle in 
some regions, but are not prohibitive, as roads can be 
and will be improved. 

There are districts here and there which are not finan- 



HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 295 

cially able through local taxation to raise the amount 

of money required to build and equip a good consoli- 

„. dated school. It is undoubtedly better 

The necessary , , ,.,.,, ^- ^1 • 

financial foun- for these districts to continue their 

dation local school than to attempt a consoli- 

dated school with too limited an amount of money. In 
states where the county, or perhaps even the township, 
is made the unit of taxation, such a financial handicap 
is seldom met. Where the state also aids the consolidated 
school there are few communities that can not build 
and equip consolidated schools without excessive taxa- 
tion. 

The difficulties to be met In effecting consolidation are 
always greater where small individual districts control 
their own schools. A study of the consolidation move- 
ment clearly shows that this type of school is growing 
most rapidly in the states where a larger unit, such as 
the township or county, is made the basis of school or- 
ganization. 

Where the law provides that each district shall vote 
separately on the abandoning of the local school and the 

« ^ ^ levying of the tax for the new school, 

County or town- , , , . , i- j 

ship better unit the problem is greatly complicated, 

than local district Consequently the campaign waged 
must be different from what it is where the entire town- 
ship or county is taken as the unit. For it is evident that 
where the project for consolidation must receive a major- 
ity vote in each of the small districts concerned, a few ob- 
jectors in any one district may defeat the proposition for 
the whole proposed territory. In such a case, the cam- 
paign must be very thorough and complete throughout 
the entire community. No objector must be overlooked, 
and nothing taken for granted. 



296 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Similar problems arise in connection with arranging 
for the details of erecting the building and equipping 
it. If those who are to have this responsibility in 
charge are chosen by small districts, jealousies are likely 
to arise which may jeopardize the success of the under- 
taking. From every point of view, therefore, it is pref- 
erable to employ the entire area to be included in the 
consolidated school as the unit of organization, taxa- 
tion and administration. 

Consolidated schools can seldom be established with- 
out a preliminary campaign of education, agitation and 

. ,. . inspiration. For the new is always 

A prehmmary ^ , •' 

campaign nee- questioned, and the old always ac- 

^^^^^y cepted as a matter of course. The 

district school is already in possession of the field, and 
this is decidedly in its favor. It will not be displaced by 
the resolutions of educational conventions, the recom- 
mendations of educational experts, or permissive laws 
by legislatures. Its elimination will require the massing 
of every influence that can be brought to bear. And 
all who enter upon this campaign, having once assured 
themselves that consolidation is feasible in their commu- 
nity, should enlist to serve not for a month or a year, but 
until victory is accomplished. 

The natural leader and commander-in-chief of the 
campaign for consolidation is the county superintendent 
together with his district superintend- 
tendeiu natural' ^"^s. For in the county superintend- 
leader of cam- ent should be found both the in- 

fluence and the knowledge that are 
needed. His office gives him authority, and he is in posi- 
tion to know the facts concerning the possibility of public 
transportation and the financial ability of the people to 



HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 297 

build and support the new school. He also will under- 
stand the legal requirements to be carried out in passing 
over from one system to another. When the superintend- 
ent finds conditions favorable to the change, he has rea- 
son and argument all on his side, and it is only left for 
him to make his campaign tactfully and fearlessly. 

Before beginning the active campaign, there are three 
groups of influences that should be earnestly and sepa- 

^, . ^ ^ rately sought: (i) the teachers, (2) 
Three important , -^ , ° ^^ . , . , , •. 

groups of in- the school officials m the territory 

fluences concerned, and (3) a few important 

and influential patrons in each of the local districts. With 

all three of these forces favorable, the problem is usually 

an easy one. 

The teachers can probably do most of all to help or 

hinder the consolidation movement. For they are in im- 

^ , mediate contact with the voters, and 

T. cflclicrs most 

powerful influence their judgment and advice carry 

for consolidation weight. The wise leader will there- 
fore seek to obtain the support and cooperation of the 
teacher before he launches his campaign among the 
voters. If trouble is taken to see that teachers fully un- 
derstand consolidation, with all its problems and advan- 
tages, it is easy to obtain their enthusiastic help for the 
project. The opposition which teachers occasionally 
make to consolidation always comes from lack of infor- 
mation. They do not know what a consolidated school 
is like, nor its advantages to both pupils and teachers. 
Some are opposed to giving up the district school be- 
cause they fear that with the new school will come higher 
standards, more exacting supervision, or perhaps even 
loss of position because a smaller number of teachers 
might be required. Others may oppose a change because 



298 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

they are now permitted in connection with the little dis- 
trict school to carry on some remunerative occupation 
while teaching, and they fear this will be impossible 
under new conditions. 

Teachers, therefore, need to be instructed and con- 
vinced with reference to consolidation. This can often 
be accomplished by having a part of the county institute 
and convention programs given over to discussions of 
consolidation. The county superintendent can here urge 
the cause, and analyze the local conditions demanding a 
change. Speakers can be brought in who have had ex- 
perience in effecting consolidation, and who know its 
difficulties and advantages. In one southern county al- 
most all the teachers were against consolidation until a 
superintendent who had successfully consolidated the 
schools of his county in another state had been brought 
before the teachers with facts, figures and lantern slides 
to show them what the movement actually means. At the 
end of a week, hardly a teacher was left who was not 
an ardent advocate of the new type of school. In another 
county the teachers were against consolidation because 
they had been told that only about one-half the number 
of teachers needed under the district system would be 
required in the consolidated schools. When they were 
shown that Montgomery County, Indiana, the most com- 
pletely consolidated county in the United States, is now 
employing one hundred and sixty-four rural teachers as 
against one hundred and forty-nine under the old sys- 
tem, their opposition disappeared. Until it is proved 
to them, they do not understand that the great increase 
in attendance and the addition of high-school grades will 
fully compensate for the closing of the smaller schools. 

Not infrequently the better and more influential teach- 



HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 299 

ers, when they come fully to understand the advantages 
of teaching in a consolidated school, are willing to give 
up their places in district schools and 
as1?fon«'th*"u;. go to the consolidated school for a 
derstand con- lower salary, if need be. The satis- 

solidation faction of being able to do both them- 

selves and the pupils full justice means more than the 
convenience of the near-by small school, or any other 
selfish consideration. One of the best teachers in a west- 
ern consolidated school was offered eighty dollars a 
month to teach a district school in an adjoining town- 
ship. He was receiving but sixty-five dollars a month 
in the consolidated school, so he decided to look the 
ground over. But when he saw the poor building, the 
scanty equipment and the overcrowded program of the 
little school, he reported to his would-be employer that 
he would not exchange schools at double the salary. So 
he returned to his old position, satisfied with the lower 
salary and better conditions. 

A typical instance occurring in a western state illus- 
trates the influence of strong teachers in the matter of 
»,, d t h r consolidation. A young teacher went 

easily makes to a district school in a community 

converts where consolidation had been agitated 

but had failed. Nearly every adult was opposed to con- 
solidation, and especially to the transportation of children. 
This young woman taught so good a school, and secured 
such a hold on the community that a petition was circu- 
lated and signed by every parent asking for her return 
a second year. But she heartily thanked the patrons for 
their cooperation, and explained that she could not re- 
turn. She told them she had been offered a position in 
an adjoining consolidated school and, as her hoart was in 



300 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

this movement, had decided to accept the place. The 
sequel was that the patrons of the district school came 
to realize the handicap under which their school was la- 
boring, and before the next school year opened had car- 
ried a proposition to abandon their district school and 
transport the children to the consolidated school where 
their favorite teacher had gone. 

A personal canvass and an appeal for the support of a 
few local leaders of prominence and intelligence is usu- 
Securing the ^^^y ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ necessary to secure 

help of leaders their cooperation, provided the ad- 

vantages of the new school are made clear to them, 
and they are convinced of the feasibility of the 
transportation system and the ability of the district to 
finance the proposition. Sometimes the school officers 
are opposed to the change. Then it is necessary to bring 
to bear all the persuasion of the teachers and influential 
neighbors to overcome this handicap. 

When the actual campaign among the voters begins, 

and ordinarily there must be a campaign that carries the 

. ^ ^ , matter to every voter in the district, 

Arguments to be . .. . 

used in the certam hues of argument need to be 

campaign emphasized: Many are afraid of the 

cost ; yet it can be shown that, if the consolidated school 
be content with the advantages offered in the district 
school, the new system would usually cost less than the 
old. Economy is not, however, the reason for consolidat- 
ing schools ; the chief argument for consolidation is 
efficiency. It can be shown that, just as the cost of a mod- 
ern reaper over the old cradle and rake is a paying in- 
vestment, so is the cost of a first-class, well-equipped, con- 
solidated school over the small one-room school. It can 
also be made clear that the one-room schools can not be 



HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 301 

built and maintained so cheaply now as in former years ; 
and that the compulsory education laws which are re- 
quiring so many children to be kept in school are also 
compelling school authorities to provide better buildings, 
more equipment, higher class teachers, a more liberal 
curriculum and improved sanitary conditions. Any of 
these new demands is sufficient within itself to justify 
the giving up of the old district school for the consoli- 
dated school. The rural teacher is already overworked 
with classes and the number of different subjects taught. 
He has been losing some of the very best pupils to the 
city and the town schools because of the fact that these 
pupils could not afford to remain in the home school 
where the teacher could find time to give them but little 
help or attention. Others have dropped out of school 
altogether with the belief that they can get more practi- 
cal help from other sources than it is possible for them 
to receive in the inefficient district schools. Still others 
are leaving these schools year after year for the simple 
reason that they have found in them too many inexperi- 
enced and unprepared teachers. All these things are not 
theory, but every-day occurrences. The one-room schools 
are no longer attracting and holding the larger boys and 
girls. Neither are they attracting or holding the better 
and more experienced teachers. 

' A questionnaire was recently sent to several county 
superintendents in different states for the purpose of as- 

„ , ^ , certaining whether these counties 

Fundamental , , < 1 • • j 

weaknesses in were able to keep their experienced 

district school teachers in the one-room schools, and 

whether the one-room schools were able to attract and 
hold a fair proportion of their boys and girls, especially 



302 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

the larger ones. The answers to these questions were 
almost unanimously in the negative. 

With reference to the teachers, three of the leading 
county superintendents of Indiana, located in different 
parts of the state, gave the following data : Superintend- 
ent John F. Hains, of Hamilton County, reported that 
39 per cent, of his district teachers at that time were be- 
ginners and that 42 per cent, of the remaining 61 per 
cent, were teaching with less than three years' experi- 
ence. At the same time in the consolidated and city 
schools of that county, but 3 per cent, of all the teachers 
were beginners, and only 9 per cent, were teaching with 
less than three years' experience. Superintendent Richard 
Park, of Sullivan County, reported that 38 per cent, of his 
district teachers were teaching their first school, and that 
only a little over 20 per cent, were teaching with three 
or more years' experience. In his consolidated, town and 
city schools, but 7 per cent, were teaching as beginners, 
and only 12 per cent, with less than three years' experi- 
ence. Superintendent Jesse C. Webb, of Johnson County, 
reported that 2^] per cent, of his one-room teachers were 
beginners, and that less than 25 per cent, of them were 
teaching with three or more years of experience. In this 
county only 5 per cent, of the teachers in the consolidated, 
town and city schools were teaching as beginners and but 
18 per cent, with less than three years of experience. 
When the fact is considered that the foregoing figures 
for the consolidated, town and city schools include not 
only the elementary, but the high-school teachers as well, 
it becomes even more convincing. For the high schools, 
in order to secure college and university graduates, must 
take a larger number of beginners than they otherwise 



HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 303 

would. Aside from this they lose a larger per cent, of 
their teachers to the commercial and professional fields 
than do the rural schools. 

In like manner it has been shown by recent studies 
that the one-room school can not compete with the con- 
p rd t d solidated school in attracting and 

schools also hold holding its pupils. The results of an 
pupils better investigation made in Montgomery 

County, Indiana, may be taken as a fair illustration, since 
this county has but few one-room schools left, and all 
these are larger and stronger than the average district 
school. In addition, a special effort has been made for 
the last several years to keep as many experienced teach- 
ers in the district schools as possible. These schools 
have had, also, the stimulus from near-by consolidated 
schools, which has a tendency to make them better and 
more efficient. In spite of such favorable conditions, 
the small schools, at the time of this investigation, were 
enrolling but twenty-seven per cent, of the children over 
fourteen years of age who had not completed the ele- 
mentary work. And only ten and four-tenths per cent, 
of those from this territory who were eligible for high 
school were enrolled. The consolidated schools in the 
same territory were enrolling seventy-one per cent, of the 
children over fourteen who had not finished the com- 
mon school, and sixty-three and eight-tenths per cent, of 
those from the consolidated territory who were eligible 
for the high school were enrolled either in the high school 
of the home school or elsewhere. The reason for this 
great difference can be made clear enough to school 
officers and patrons. 

The one-room school is not only unable to attract and 
hold a reasonable proportion of the pupils for the com- 



304 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

pletion of the elementary course, but it fails to give to 
those who do remain the ambition to look ahead for f ur- 

^ , , ther education in the hi^h school. 

One-room school .- , , , • , 

does not lead to And even if the boys and girls who 
more education complete the district school desire a 

high-school education, comparatively few can attain one 
unless the high school is brought to them as a part of 
the consolidated school. These facts and these illustra- 
tions are given to indicate the type of information that 
has been successfully used in various campaigns for con- 
solidation. 

There is no end to the different arguments, ways and 
means for convincing patrons and voters that the con- 

-, . ^ , solidated school promises more for 

Campaign must be , , ., ,. . , . , 

suited to local the upbuilding of the community and 

conditions ^[^g improving of farm life than any 

Other agency. But no two communities are just alike in 
local conditions, and hence it is impossible to lay down 
any complete and definite program that will apply to all 
localities. In some districts it is necessary to dwell 
chiefly on the financial side of the two types of schools. 
In other localities, the advantages offered by the new 
school as a social center make the stronger appeal. And 
in still others, the superior equipment, stronger teaching 
force and better curriculum are the convincing argu- 
ments. The leaders of the campaign must be sympathetic 
students of local problems, and adjust their plans accord- 
ingly. 

The help of local papers should be enlisted whenever 
possible. Articles bearing on the desirability of better 
rural schools, accounts of improved conditions in near-by 
schools, and suggestions as to the advantages of con- 
soHdated schools are of great help. Especially after 



HOW. TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 305 

consolidation has begun can the press be influential in 
stimulating local pride and emulation. 

"Booster" meetings should be held when the right stage 
of the campaign is reached, and every influence brought 
Value of public ^° ^^^^ ^° insure the attendance of 

meetings the indifferent and the opponents of 

the movement. In this connection, lantern slides of 
model consolidated schools and their achievements have 
a powerful influence. Addresses should be made, facts 
presented, and a free, open and honest discussion of 
all sides of the question encouraged. All personal feel- 
ing, jealousy and bitterness should be laid aside, and the 
good of the entire community patriotically and fearlessly 
considered. Teachers, as well as superintendents and 
patrons, should attend these meetings and take an active 
and intelligent part therein. 

With one well-located consolidated school adequately 
furnished and equipped, provided with a satisfactory 
transportation system, and given a 
enc^*^of^the*'first corps of efficient teachers working 
consolidated under a good superintendent, the 

^^ °° battle is well won. For success is a 

powerful stimulus. Emulation is sure to follow. One 
such school in any county, plus the local support sure to 
come from its teachers and patrons, will do more to con- 
vert the remainder of the county to consolidation than 
all other factors combined. The leaders must start out 
with this in mind. No mistake must be made with the 
first consolidated school ; for one failure may delay the 
movement for years to come. The site must be chosen 
wisely, the building be suitable, the transportation satis- 
factory, and the teachers carefully selected. 

Especially should the superintendent of the new school 



3o6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

be thoroughly capable and adapted to his work. For he 
confronts a difficult and delicate task in combining a num- 

T , ber of different small schools, each 

Importance of • , . ,• • 

selecting right With its own traditions and stand- 

superintendent ards, into one unified system. He will 

have to grade the school, classify the pupils and attend 
to many other difficult matters of organization. On him 
will fall much of the responsibility for insuring safe and 
satisfactory conditions in the school hacks. It will be 
his problem to convert any objectors left in the com- 
munity, and in all ways take the lead in proving the wis- 
dom of changing from the old to the new. 



FOR teachers'* discussion AND STUDY 

1. Why is the creation of a desire for better rural 
schools one of the first steps necessary in order to ob- 
tain consolidation? In what three ways can this desire 
be created in the average rural district? What step 
should next be taken ? 

2. Would a full knowledge of the three conditions 
given on page two hundred and ninety-four enable you 
to decide whether or not your own community should be 
urged to ask for a consolidated school? How would you 
proceed to satisfy yourself as to these facts? 

3. Why is it better for a district that is not financially 
able to build and equip a good consolidated school to 
continue school in the old district buildings? Do you 
think it is possible for almost any community to have 
a good consolidated school (where consolidation is ad- 
visable) if the larger unit for financing rural schools 
could be generally adopted? Why is the larger unit 
better for administrative purposes as well as financial 
purposes? 



HOW TO EFFECT CONSOLIDATION 307 

4. If conditions were reversed and it were necessary 
to abandon the consolidated schools in order to establish 
the old district system, do you think your patrons would 
be in favor of the change? How many of your patrons 
really know the advantages of the consolidated schools? 
How many of them have ever visited a good consoli- 
dated school? How many of your fellow teachers have 
ever visited this kind of a school? Do you see any 
reasonable argument in the statement that a teacher can 
teach a better school where she has from fifteen to twenty 
pupils in seven or eight grades than where she has from 
twenty to twenty-five in two grades? 

5. Why should the county or district superintendent 
take the lead in a movement like consolidation? When, 
if at all, should these officials be urged to remain silent 
on the question? In some counties the teachers are 
given most credit for bringing about the consolidated 
school. Name and discuss at least three things that must 
have been accomplished by these teachers in order to 
merit this credit. 

6. How can local newspapers best help to advance 
this movement? How would you gain the cooperation 
of these newspapers? If you should decide to take the 
editors of the papers out to see the actual work being 
done in the rural schools, just where would you take 
them ? Make an itinerary for a trip of this kind. Would 
you invite any patrons or school officials to accompany 
you on this trip ? Why ? 



CHAPTER XX 

THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 

The success of consolidation depends more largely on 

efficient and satisfactory transportation than on any other 

single factor. Rural homes are so far 
Success of consoli- ^ j ^.i r -i 

dation dependent apart, and the average family so 

on public trans- small, that in order to justify con- 
^ solidation, pupils must be gathered 

from a territory too large to admit of any considerable 
number walking. This means that a large majority of 
the children must be carried to and from school at public 
expense. For, not only is it unfair to those who chance 
to live farthest from the school to require them to furnish 
their own conveyance, but no system of private convey- 
ances has ever proved successful. Nor can it prove suc- 
cessful. There are too many chances that accident, sick- 
ness or rush of work will interfere with taking the chil- 
dren to school. Attendance is bound to be irregular, and 
tardiness and absence the rule rather than the exception 
where the district is not responsible for the system of 
transportation. 

There are many whose only argument against the con- 
solidated school is based upon objections growing out of 
p , .. J. - transportation, and in many instances 

transportation not it is not difficult to find room for just 
well founded complaints. But investigation will 

show that the causes for such complaints are never in- 
herent in the system itself, but are due to maladministra- 

308 




The way the old district school sends its pupils home 




One of the best types of school hacks 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 309 

tion. Like all other branches of public service, the trans- 
portation of school children falls short of success when 
left in the hands of incompetent and untrustworthy in- 
dividuals. Because a driver now and then keeps the 
children in an uncomfortable and poorly ventilated 
wagon until ill results follow does not prove that the 
school wagon is a menace to good health. To argue to 
such a conclusion is like saying that the loss of more than 
two hundred children in the Collinwood school disaster 
proved that all school buildings are death-traps. Prac- 
tically all just complaints against transportation arise 
from incompetency or carelessness which could easily 
have been guarded against by school officials. Recently 
the lives of a score of pupils were jeopardized by a 
driver who was addicted to drink, and whose route 
crossed the railroad track. The fault here lay not in 
the system, but in derelict officials who would employ 
such a man as driver, and allow him to continue after his 
dereliction was known. The fact that one state last year 
spent half a million dollars for the transportation of 
school children without a single serious accident is proof 
of the safety of the system. 

In any discussion of transportation four all-important 
factors are to be considered. These are : ( i ) the length 
Four important ^^ ^^^ route, (2) the character of the 
factors roads, (3) the means of conveyance, 

and (4) the character and efficiency of the driver. 

The matter of determining the routes for the several 
wagons of a new consolidated school is at once difficult 
Difficulty of map- ^"^ delicate. The moment one begins 
ping routes to map out these routes a number of 

perplexing questions are confronted. The wagon must 
be well filled, no child is to be missed, bad roads must be 



310 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

avoided, and no one route should exceed six miles over 
good roads, or five miles over unfavorable roads. To 
sit at one's desk with a county or township map before 
him and settle all these questions may seem a slight task. 
But to go in person over the proposed routes and decide 
where the wagons shall make their first and last stops, 
and which roads shall be traveled, are matters requiring 
much wisdom, tact and capacity for fairness. 

One of the most troublesome questions before route 
makers and wagon drivers is that of dealing with fam- 
ilies who live at a considerable distance from the main 
road. In some localities there are so many homes situ- 
ated in the center of farms or down muddy lanes that, 
should the school routes be so planned as to go directly 
to all these homes, each driver would be obliged to travel 
some ten or fifteen miles in order to fill his wagon. And 
this would mean that the children he received first would 
have to be carried an unreasonable distance and would 
be in the wagon too long a time. More than one school 
official has received complaint against transportation, and 
upon investigation has found that certain persuasive par- 
ents had influenced the driver to alter or enlarge his 
route by driving down lanes or by-roads which were not, 
and should not be, a part of the route. All favoritism of 
this sort, or any other violation of the driver's in- 
structions must be rigidly forbidden. Where careless- 
ness or lack of courage on the part of school boards 
prevents the carrying out of this fundamental condition, 
the success of the system is sure to be endangered. 

The introduction of transportation not infrequently 

bears one ill result. It seldom fails to make all walking 

,, ti on the part of school children unde- 

Unreasonable . , , , ,. , .1 

patrons sirable and exceedmgly irksome. 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 311 

Children who cheerfully walked two miles to the old dis- 
trict school consider it a great hardship to walk a half, 
a quarter, or even an eighth of a mile to reach the school 
wagon ; and it often happens that the severest critics of 
consolidation are parents whose children are expected to 
walk from their homes to the main road, a distance rarely 
exceeding a quarter of a mile. 

In one such instance a ten-year-old girl was asked to 
meet the school wagon at the crossroads just a quarter 
of a mile from her home. The parents objected, but the 
route was already too long and the officials ignored the 
objection, not only because it would have added another 
half-mile to call for this girl, but also because it would 
necessitate turning the heavily loaded wagon around in 
a narrow and treacherous spot. The parents refused to 
abide by the decision of the officials and appealed the 
case to the county superintendent. In their argument be- 
fore the superintendent they held that it was not only 
unfair to expect their daughter to walk down this lane, 
but that it was dangerous owing to the occasional passing 
of cattle and other live stock. This was the first year 
of the new consolidated school, and the complainants 
were asked how their daughter had been getting to the 
old district school, which was nearly a mile away. 
They admitted that she had walked and that she had trav- 
ersed this lane. The walking had not proved burdensome 
or dangerous prior to the introduction of transportation. 

Great importance attaches to the length of the route. 
While much depends on the character of the roads and 
The length of *^^ weight of the vehicle, it may 

the route safely be said that no school wagon 

drawn by Horses should be expected to cover a route ex- 



312 BETTER RURAL! SCHOOLS 

ceeding six miles in length — a maximum ride of twelve 
miles a day for those children who live at the extreme 
end of the route. The legislature of Indiana, however, 
has repeatedly refused to pass a bill limiting the school- 
wagon routes to six miles, and this is the state which 
leads in the number of school wagons used, and the per 
cent, of pupils transported. During the 191 1 session of 
the Indiana legislature, a bill making six miles the maxi- 
mum length of transportation routes received the sup- 
port of scores of leading school men, but in spite of this, 
the bill was defeated ; and, strange as it may seem, those 
who most strongly opposed the bill were the voters whose 
children were being transported. This last and most 
persistent attempt to limit by law the length of school 
routes in this state brought out the fact that there are 
instances where children are being carried seven miles or 
farther, to the complete satisfaction of their parents. It 
furthermore showed that the length of routes should be 
determined altogether by local conditions. 

The unexpected growth and success of free rural-mail 
service in the United States has demonstrated that, when 

Good roads a ^^^y ^^^ ^^^"^ wanted, good country 

factor in length roads can be had in nearly every sec- 
of route ^Jqj^ Qf ^j^g country. Statistics show 

that more miles of good all-the-year-around roads have 
been built during the last fifteen years than during any 
fifty years previously. In numerous localities, good, 
roads have been built for the express purpose of securing 
the advantages of the daily mail. And it is reasonable 
to say that if a state or community is willing to improve 
roads in order to secure free daily mail, the same state or 
community should be no less willing to improve more 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 313 

roads in order to get free transportation for school chil- 
dren. 

The importance of good roads to the success of con- 
soHdation can not be over-estimated. It is well known 

_ . that in many of our states there are 

Transportation .. . 

largely dependent miles Upon miles of country roads 
on good roads which become so bad in winter and 

early spring that two horses can do no more than draw 
an empty wagon over them. To effect any system of 
transportation over these roads is next thing to impossi- 
ble. And in some states, hills, swamps and running 
streams make road building a very costly enterprise. For 
this reason consolidation can not be given a fair trial in 
such localities. And, as already pointed out, the character 
of the roads goes far toward determining the length of 
routes and the number of pupils to be carried in each 
wagon in districts where consolidation is firmly estab- 
lished. 

But it is not too much to believe that excellent roads 
will soon permeate every prosperous and progressive 
Present tendency ^ural community. This fact should 
to improve roads not be lost sight of by those who are 
considering the question of transportation in connection 
with the consolidation of rural schools. Farmers are 
realizing that it is false economy either to allow their 
roads to go unimproved, or to experiment in the matter 
of road building. And no one is more cognizant of the 
fact than they, that too much money has been extrava- 
gantly wasted on the average country road. 

Within the last few years, however, most of the states 
have taken long strides in the building of country roads. 
Better methods of Efficient and responsible road super- 
road building visors and county engineers are rap- 



314 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

idly displacing the indifferent and busy farmers, who 
have too often regarded the building of roads as an easy 
opportunity to pay a good portion of their taxes by work- 
ing without plan or skill upon the roads when farm work 
is slack. Poor and inadequate grading is giving way to ex- 
cellent roadbeds, and these beds are being covered, not 
with sand and dirt from the nearest pit, but with the best 
grade of gravel, crushed stone or pavement. Additional 
money is being appropriated from state treasuries, and 
this fund is being increased in many states by the in- 
come derived from automobile licenses. One state has 
recently reported the receipt of more than four hun- 
dred thousand dollars for the current year from this 
source alone, and all of the fund is to be used on the 
roads of that state. In many sections of the country 
individual communities have bonded themselves to the 
extreme limit for the purpose of improving their roads 
in addition to what the state is doing for them. It is 
evident, therefore, that within the early future but few 
districts should need to deprive themselves of transpor- 
tation on account of poor roads. 

Until within the last two or three years, wagons or 
carriages drawn by horses have been almost exclusively 
The automobile as used in conveying children to and 
transportation from the consolidated school. But 

the time is fast approaching when motor-cars will sup- 
plant horses in this sphere just as they have done in the 
matter of street-cars. These new and swifter vehicles 
have already been tried in certain localities. Mr. T. H. 
Gass, a driver for the Alamo consolidated school near 
Crawfordsville, Indiana, used a motor-car during the 
school year of 1912-1913 with complete success. His 
route was almost five miles in length and there were 




The bad road 




Changing bad roads into good is one of the best means of promoting 

rural education 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 315 

seventeen children to be carried. While the roads were 
in good condition the trip was made in thirty minutes ; 
this is to say that one-half hour was the maximum time 
any pupil would be in the car. With still further im- 
provements in the manufacture of motor-cars and better 
country roads, it will be possible to transport children 
in less than half the time now required. 

Any wagon or car used to convey school children 
should have adequate room and good ventilation. The 

-, ,./! s.' seats should be adjusted to the height 

Qualifications •' . 

required of and comfort of the pupils carried. 

any conveyance j^e wagon should be heated by some 
form of hidden furnace or heater, and never by an oil 
or coal stove. There is on the market now a very satis- 
factory small heater made expressly for school wagons. 
It is neatly fitted under the bed of the wagon, and the 
heat is distributed by means of pipes and registers. It 
burns wood, coal or coke, and is absolutely fire-proof, 
being so constructed that if a wagon were to upset and 
turn completely over, no fire could get out of the fire 
box. There are still other methods for heating the 
wagons, and no excuse exists for permitting children to 
suffer with cold while being conveyed to school, or for 
endangering their lives by fire in case of accident. 

It seems unnecessary to say that school wagons and 
cars should not be left out-of-doors over night or when 
The care of ^^o^ ^^ ^^se. But, because they are 

school wagons ordinarily the property of the state, 

county or township, they are often exposed and misused 
in various ways. Drivers should be required to provide 
adequate shelter for these vehicles. A complaint was 
made during a recent school term against a certain wagon 
on the ground that it was nearly always damp and cold 



3i6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

when the children entered it. Upon investigation it was 
learned that the wagon was being left out-of-doors day 
and night, no matter what the weather. 

All vehicles for the transportation of school children 
should be purchased and owned by the school corpora- 
School wagons to *^°" ^P w^^c^ t^^y ^^^ *o be used. 
be owned by the This is true, Urst, because it is ob- 
corporation ^j^^g ^j^^^ should these vehicles be 

owned by individuals, the school corporation would be 
limited in the selection of the drivers ; and, secondly, be- 
cause public ownership of the vehicles makes for superi- 
ority and uniformity. Dissatisfaction is sure to follow 
when inferior vehicles are used day after day. It may 
be somewhat of a treat for the children to change from 
their regular wagon to a sled for a trip or two when a 
beautiful snow covers the roads, and in northern latitudes 
the sled may have to be called into requisition. But no 
cheap or inferior method of transportation can be de- 
pended on. Certain specifications should be made and 
followed in the selection of any school vehicle. In order 
to protect the roads it should have broad wheels. It 
should be comfortable and safe for the smallest and 
largest child. It should be perfectly strong, yet light 
enough in weight to enable as much speed as possible. 
It should be well lighted, well ventilated, and easy to 
mount and dismount. Several wagon factories are now 
making a specialty of standard school wagons. 

The driver of any vehicle carrying school children 
should be chosen with as much care as the teacher or 
superintendent. For he is not only entrusted with the 
health and in some degree with the morals of the children 
he conveys, but also with their very lives. 

In every case this driver should be a mature person, 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 317 

preferably a father or mother. One school trustee states 
that the best driver his township has had during the 
Qualifications ^i"^ years the wagon has been in 

of the driver use, is a widowed mother whose own 

children are among the pupils she carries. This mother 
was strong both physically and morally, and all the chil- 
dren not only obeyed her, but loved her. And this trustee 
further says that the poorest driver he has had was a 
young man who at first gave every promise of making 
an excellent guardian for the children on his route. But 
he was unable to control the children and they came to 
dislike him to such an extent that they would go to great 
lengths to annoy and harass him. Like many teachers, 
this young man did not understand childhood. His many 
threats and promises augmented trouble instead of abat- 
ing it. The patrons finally became so disturbed that they 
demanded his resignation. 

Important, then, as these things are, the ability properly 
to drive a team and to look after the physical safety of the 
children are not the only qualifications drivers must pos- 
sess. If such were the case it would be far less difficult 
to secure first-class drivers than it is. The question of 
moral influence plays one of the most important parts in 
the transporting of school children. The man who con- 
veys pupils to and from school should be as clean and 
wholesome as the teacher who instructs them during 
school hours. Children are imitators always, and will 
be influenced by their driver as quickly and naturally as 
by their teacher. It is universally agreed that no man 
who uses intoxicating liquors should be employed as a 
driver. It should likewise be agreed that no man whose 
habits or standards are unworthy of imitation should be 



3i8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

numbered among those who transport pupils to and from 
schools. 

In those communities where transportation has been in 
operation for some time there has been comparatively 
little difficulty in securing desirable drivers. The average 
daily wage paid each driver for himself and team has 
been upward of two dollars, which amount has proved 
sufficient to lead from four to ten men to apply for 
every position. This has not only given officials great 
latitude in the selection of men, but it has also served as 
a powerful stimulus in causing the men chosen to do their 
best. There are a few officials who ask for competitive 
bids, and then give the positions to the men offering to do 
the work for the least money. But this method tends 
inevitably to lower the standard of service rendered, and 
can not be too severely condemned. 

Every occupation has its own temptations. One of the 
temptations which comes oftenest and most easily to driv- 
The driver and ^^^ °^ school wagons, is the tempta- 

his schedule tion to alter their time tables. For 

example, Richard Roe, driver for a certain school, is 
given a time table which stipulates just when he is ex- 
pected to arrive at each home where there are pupils to 
be carried to school. This table has been prepared with 
great care. It provides ample time between stops, and 
is designed to get the pupils to school about ten minutes 
before the last bell. All goes well for several weeks. But 
presently something tempts Richard Roe to deviate just 
a little from schedule time. Perchance it is a piece of 
work on the farm that needs his attention. He asks the 
children along the route to be ready fifteen minutes early 
to-morrow. The children are nothing loath to escape the 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 319 

chores and arrive at school in time for a period of play 
before lesson time. Hearing no special protest, Richard 
Roe concludes that it will be to his advantage to start 
on his route twenty or thirty minutes early once a week 
or oftener. It is not long until complaint is heard, and 
the complaint is just. When a time table has been pre- 
pared and proved workable and satisfactory for any 
particular route, it should be considered sufficient cause 
for the discharge of the driver who alters it for selfish 
or unwarranted reasons. 

The following transportation schedules actually in 

use in two different Indiana consoli- 
Typical schedules 1.1 11 ■, -j j 

made by drivers dated schools may be considered 

typical : 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL NO. 1 

Situated in a Region Where the Roads Are Well Improved, Con- 
sisting Chiefly of Gravel and Crushed Rock. 





Driver No. 1 


Driver No. 2 


Driver No. 3 


Driver No. 4 


Driver No. 5 




Time on Road 


Time on Road 


Time on Road 


Time on Road 


Time on Road 


No. 


65 Minutes 


90 Minutes 


75 Minutes 


80 Minutes 


70 Minutes 


of 
Stop 


No. Time 


No. 


Time 


No. 


Time 


No. 


Time 


No. 


Time 




Children of 


Children 


of 


Children 


of 


Children 


of 


Children 


of 




Rec'd. Stop 


Rec'd. 


Stop 


Rec'd. 


Stop 


Rec'd. 


Stop 


Rec'd. 


Stop 


1 


One 


7:30 


Three 


7:15 


Two 


7:30 


Two 


7:20 


One 


7:30 


2 


Three 


7:35 


Two 


7:25 


Two 


7:35 


One 


7:30 


One 


7:35 


3 


One 


7:40 


One 


7:30 


Three 


7:40 


One 


7:35 


Four 


7:4S 


4 


One 


7:50 


Two 


7:35 


Two 


7:45 


Two 


7:40 


Two 


7:50 


5 


Two 


7:55 


One 


7:40 


Four 


7:55 


One 


7:45 


Two 


7:5S 


6 


Three 


8:00 


Two 


7:55 


One 


8:00 


Three 


7:50 


Three 


8:00 


7 


Two 


8:05 


One 


8:00 


Two 


8:10 


Four 


8:00 


One 


8:0S 


8 


Two 


8:10 


Three 


8:05 


Four 


8:20 


Two 


8:05 


Four 


8:10 


9 


Four 


8:15 


Two 


8:10 


Two 


8:25 


Two 


8:10 


Two 


8:15 


10 


Two 


8:20 


Two 


8: IS 


One 


8:30 


One 


«:1S 


Three 


8:20 


11 


One 


8:25 
8:3S 


Four 
One 


8:2S 
8:30 
8:4S 




8:45 


One 
One 
One 
Two 


8:20 
8:25 
8:30 
8:3S 
8:40 


One 


8:25 


12 




8:40 


13 












14 
















IS 






































Total 


22 




24 




23 




24 




24 





320 



BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL NO. 2 

Situated in a Region Where the Roads Are Mostly Unimproved, 
with Dirt Surface. 



No. 


Driver No. 1 
Time on Road 
105 Minutes 


Driver No. 2 

Time on Road 

85 Minutes 


Driver No. 3 
Time on Road 

100 Minutes 


of 
Stop 


No. 
Children 
Received 


Time 

of 

Stop 


No. 
Children 
Received 


Time 
of 

Stop 


No. 
Children 
Received 


Time 

of 
Stop 


1 
2 

3 
4 
S 
6 
7 
8 
9 


Two 
Two 

Three 
Four 
Five 
Two 

Three 
One 
Two 


7:00 
7:10 
7:20 
7:30 
7:40 
7:45 
7:55 
8:05 
8:20 
8:45 


Six 
Two 
Four 
Three 
Three 
Two 
One 
One 


7:15 

7:20 
7:30 
7:40 
7:50 
8:00 
8:10 
8:20 
8:40 


Three 
Three 
Three 
Two 
One 
One 
Four 
One 
Two 
One 


7:00 
7:15 
7:25 
7:30 
7:40 
7:45 
7:55 
8:00 
8-OS 


10 




8:10 


11 








8:15 


12 












8:40 
















Total 


24 




22 




21 





It should be noted that in the columns headed "Time of 
Stop" the last items indicate the time of arrival at the 
school buildings. 

The following contract and bond are typical of those 
being entered into between school corporations and wagon 
Driver's contract drivers. It can not be too strongly 
and bond urged that a legal contract secured by 

a bond of reasonable amount be required in every case 
where the district employs drivers for the transportation 
of pupils : 

THIS CONTRACT This day entered into by and be- 
tween , School 

Trustee of Township County, 

, of the first part and 

, as driver of a school wagon herein 

known as party of the second part, of 

County, State of ; WITNESSETH : 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 321 

That the party of the first part has this day employed 

the party of the second part at the sum of $ 

per day, to drive the school wagon on the route known 
herein as Number .... and which route is more particu- 
larly described as follows, to-wit : 

Beginning at the home of 

which home shall be known herein as stop Number One, 
and thence 



and arriving at school between .... and .... A. M. 

And said second party hereby agrees to drive said 
route, and transport all the children of school age who 
now reside in the homes on the route designated, or 
those children who may move into homes along and ad- 
jacent to said route during the school term. 

The party of the second part agrees to use every care 
and precaution in the way of protecting the children 
transported as aforesaid, and to maintain order and dis- 
cipline at all times, and to treat said children kindly and 
impartially, and those children who refuse to obey shall 
be reported by the second party to the first party, who 
on proper assurance of their continued disobedience, 
shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, to exclude 
them from further advantage or admittance to said 
wagon. 

The second party further agrees that he shall at all 
times while driving said route come to a full stop at 
each point where children are taken into the wagon or 
let out, and he shall also come to a full stop before cross- 
ing any steam or electric railway, and ascertain posi- 
tively whether there is any danger, and he agrees to avoid 
all danger in case danger is recognized, if possible. 

And the second party at no time during the school 
term shall allow the wagon under his control to stand 
out in the storm or cold, and shall keep the same clean, 
comfortable, warm and properly ventilated, at all times 
while in use for the children. 



322 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

And second party agrees to abstain absolutely from 
the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors in any form, 
and prevent others from using them about the wagon 
while children are therein ; and he further agrees to per- 
form personally all duties as laid down in this agreement, 
unless permission for a substitute be given by the party 
of the first part, who shall designate who such substi- 
tute shall be. 

And the party of the second part hereby agrees to 
make all reports called for by the party of the first part, 
or by those authorized by the party of the first part who 
call for them, and also agrees to wash and clean up said 
wagon at the end of the school term, and place it in the 
school barn or elsewhere as directed by the trustee of 
said township without any extra compensation. 

The second party further agrees that no other use shall 
be made of the school wagon above mentioned without 
permission of the party of the first part, and the same 
shall be well cared for and protected at all times by the 
second party as far as possible. 

Any violation on the part of the second party of any 
of the provisions of this contract shall be sufficient cause 
for declaring it forfeited by the party of the first part, 
and the party of the second part shall be responsible on 
his bond executed in connection herewith for such viola- 
tion. 

WITNESS our hands and seals this day of 



Party of the First Part. 

i , ■ ' 

! ? Party of the Second Part. 

CONTRACTOR'S BOND 

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS That 

I, , as principal and 

as surety are 

hereby firmly bound by these presents to , 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 323 

of Township, 

County , in the penal sum of $ 

for the payment of which we jointly and severally bind 
ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators. 

Sealed this day of , 19 ... . 

The condition of the above obligation is that the said 

above has been employed as 

driver of the school wagon on School Route Number 

in Township, 

County, 

during the school year of 19. . . and 19. . . 

Now if the said shall 

faithfully and impartially discharge his duties as provided 
in the contract of employment in connection herewith, 
and in accordance with all the terms and conditions 
thereof, then this bond shall be null and void, otherwise 
to be and remain in full force and effect in law. 



Approved by me this day of 

1913- 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. What are four important factors in connection 
with the transportation of school children? In your 
judgment which is the most important, the condition of 
the roads, the means of conveyance, or the driver? 
Give reasons for your answer. 

2. What are some of the most common complaints 
made against the school wagon? Do you think these 
complaints should be charged against the system itself 
or against the way in which the system is managed? 
Call on some patron of a school wagon and ask for his 
objection or criticisms against his local school wagons. 



324 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

3. In your judgment what should be the length of a 
route covered by a team-drawn school wagon in your 
community? Try to learn what is the distance being cov- 
ered by the wagons nearest you. Then try to find out 
if any of the drivers leave the main highways for the 
purpose of accommodating certain pupils. Do you feel 
that any local official should plan a route which would 
make it necessary for a wagon filled with children to be 
carried off the main road to pick up one or two children ? 

4. Approximately how many miles of roads have been 
built or improved in your immediate community during 
the last five years ? Are your roads now favorable or unfa- 
vorable to the successful operation of the school wagon? 
How many weeks or months during each year could they 
be made favorable for the transportation of school chil- 
dren by the expenditure of a reasonable amount of money 
on them? Who has charge of your road repair work? 
Do you think a local method of road-working by land 
owners and voters is a satisfactory one? 

5. Are any motor-cars used for the transportation of 
school children in your part of the country? Can you 
see any reason why this speedier and more comfortable 
method should not displace the present wagon method 
if the roads are made suitable? From available figures 
as to the cost of the wagon method in your community, 
try to ascertain whether or not the motor-car would be 
the cheaper, taking into consideration the original cost, 
repairs and the number of children transported. How 
many children are your drivers trying to carry in the 



wagon 



7 



6. What should be some of the qualifications of a 
school-wagon driver? Should the school corporation or 
the driver furnish the vehicle? Give reasons for your 
answer. If a team is used, who should own it? Why 
do so many .drivers persist in reaching the school build- 
ing too early? Supposing that three- fourths of your 
pupils were being transported to and from school, what 



THE TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS 325 

time in the morning would you prefer that these children 
should arrive? Do you think too many rural children 
try to reach the school building too long before the day's 
work begins? 



PART V 
RURAL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 

No system of schools can run successfully without ade- 
quate supervision. It matters not how skilful the teach- 
ing, how excellent the equipment, or how perfect the 
curriculum, there must be over it all some competent au- 
thority to unify and direct. Left without necessary su- 
pervision the schools are like a complex factory system 
possessing a supply of material and a full quota of work- 
ers, but lacking overseers and foremen to direct the opera- 
tions. Such a system of manufacture would result in 
great waste, and would end in financial disaster. 

This point is well illustrated in a recent statement 
made by State Superintendent Hamlett of Kentucky: 
Waste from lack "Kentucky is spending annually the 
of supervision enormous sum of over three million 

dollars for rural education, practically without su- 
pervision. Here are nine thousand four hundred 
and eighty-one rural teachers in the service of the state ; 
one thousand four hundred and forty-one of whom are 
beginners, and each one conducting his school in his own 
way. Fifty-two cents out of every dollar of state taxes 
go to public education; the school fund has increased 
over one million dollars in eight years ; the salaries of 
rural teachers have increased until they average forty- 
eight dollars and sixty cents per month or two dollars and 

329 



330 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ten cents larger than the average of salaries of city teach- 
ers; and yet, in spite of the heavy tax on the people 
and the large increase in teachers' salaries, the rural 
schools are falling farther and farther behind as com- 
pared to city schools. What is the cause? Clearly one 
of the causes, if not the chief one, is a lack of competent 
direction or supervision of the rural schools." This con- 
dition of affairs is not peculiar to Kentucky, however, 
but is typical in too large a degree of the rural schools 
in most of the states. 

Rural schools especially should not be left without 
skilful supervision. For here the problems are the most 

^ , , , difficult to be met in the whole school 

Rural schools es- 
pecially need system, the teachers are the youngest 
supervision |jq|.j^ [^ years and experience, and have 
had the least preparation and training for their work. 
The rural teachers, therefore, need and have a right to 
the help that comes from the sympathetic oversight of a 
competent supervisor whose knowledge and experience 
enable him to guide and direct the young teacher in 
meeting his many perplexing problems. 

Yet the rural schools have never been given supervision 
worthy the name. In the earlier days of our history the 
minister often had added to his clerical duties as a sort 
of side-line the task of inspecting the school and examin- 
ing the fitness of the teacher. But with the divorcement 
of the church and public education, this custom lapsed. 
The care of the schools was then not infrequently at- 
tached to the duties of some public officer who already had 
duties enough to occupy all his time and interest. Finally, 
the office of county superintendent was created, and forty- 
one of the forty-eight states have now adopted the of- 
fice. It is understood in every state that the special 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 331 

function of the county superintendent is to oversee the 
work of the rural schools, special superintendents being 
employed for the towns and cities. 

! The office of county superintendent may therefore be 
looked on as typical of our attempt to supervise rural 

« ^ . education. This office has played an 

County supenn- . . , , - 

tendcnt and su- important part m the development of 
pervision q^j. educational system, and its thou- 

sands of incumbents have on the whole been efficient 
and deeply devoted to their work. But the office imposes 
an impossible task on the superintendent. For, while the 
county is probably the most convenient unit for school 
organization and administration, it is far too large for 
successful supervision under one officer. 
I Counties vary greatly in size in different parts of the 
country, running from ten or fifteen miles square in 
some of the eastern states, to more than one hundred 
miles in certain western states. The average county in 
the greater part of the country is not far from twenty- 
five miles square, having therefore an area of some six 
hundred square miles. In better settled regions such 
counties have from one hundred and twenty-five to one 
hundred and fifty rural schools, and not infrequently 
as many as two hundred. Together with town and vil- 
lage schools, the county superintendent often has from 
two hundred to three hundred teachers under his nomi- 
nal supervision, or as many as would supply a city of 
forty thousand people. 

It is, of course, perfectly evident that no personal su- 
pervision can be had over the rural schools under such 
Too great a terri- conditions as these. If the county 
tory to cover superintendent should visit one rural 

school every day that the §choQls are in session, 



332 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

he would barely be able to call upon each school 
once a year. This is equivalent to no supervision at all, 
since he can be of no direct help to the teacher in meet- 
ing his daily problems. And even if v^^e grant that a 
whole day need not be spent in each school visited, we 
yet have to allow for many factors that make it impos- 
sible for the county superintendent to visit schools con- 
stantly while they are in session. 

For the county superintendent is greatly handicapped 
by the fact that he is expected to keep up the routine of 
Lack of clerical ^^^ office, and often without adequate 
help; many duties clerical help. He usually has to care 
for a large correspondence, and is required to keep many 
records and make extensive reports. He must keep open 
office and meet the school patrons of his county on certain 
days set apart for this purpose. He must give frequent 
examinations for certificates and, in states where the 
state does not take charge of the grading of manuscripts, 
must spend days and weeks on the reading of papers. 
He is generally commissioned with the duty of passing 
on the plans of all new buildings or extensive repairs for 
schoolhouses, and not infrequently must help select the 
text-books for the use of the schools and the school li- 
braries. The county superintendent is constituted a court 
for the hearing of appeals on school cases. He must have 
charge of the enforcement of the school laws in his coun- 
ty, must attend educational conventions, and prepare and 
carry out programs for teachers' and patrons' meetings. It 
is plain that when these and many other duties not enu- 
merated have been attended to, the time for visiting and 
supervising schools is greatly curtailed. A fair example 
of the actual amount of supervision rendered is the fact 
that in North Carolina the average time annually spent 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 333 

by the county superintendent in each rural school in 
1910-11 was one hour and fifty- four minutes; in Ten- 
nessee, the time averaged one hour and fifty minutes. In 
Georgia and Florida during the same year, the county su- 
perintendent averaged one and two-tenths visits to the 
school.^ The record in other states is not far different. 

But the effectiveness of supervision by the county su- 
perintendent is still further handicapped by another fac- 
Low salary a ^°^ — *^^ inadequate pay, with frequent 

handicap lack of provision for traveling ex- 

penses incurred in visiting schools. In order to travel 
over a county where trolley lines are yet wanting, the 
county superintendent must keep some conveyance of 
his own or else hire. This means additional expense, 
and a heavy drain on a meager salary. It is financially 
more profitable for the county superintendent to remain 
in his office than to visit his schools ; in other words, a 
tax is put on supervision by failing to provide for the 
legitimate expenses incurred while traveling among the 
schools. The outcome of all this is that the rural schools 
are often not visited by the county superintendent for 
several terms at a time, nor the teachers met except 
at normal institutes or other teachers' conventions. 

The salary of county superintendents has never been 

commensurate with the responsibilities and opportunities 

of the ofiice. The county superintend- 
Discrimination . . ,, . , . - 

against county ^"^ ^^ Usually paid a lower salary 

superintendent than the merely clerical officers of 

^ the county, such as the county 

treasurer, clerk or auditor. Yet these require but 

a rudimentary education, and no special judgment or 

^ See Monahan in Bulletin Number five hundred and fifteen, 
United States Bureau of Education. 



334 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

skill, while the county superintendent should possess an 
education equal to that of any educator in the public 
school system, and should in addition have the highest 
type of administrative ability and special training for his 
work. 

While the supervision of the rural schools of a county 
is vastly more difficult than the supervision of the schools 
of a city employing an equal number of teachers, yet the 
pay of the county superintendent is rarely more than 
half as much, and frequently less than a third as much 
as is paid the city superintendent. This factor militates, 
of course, against the office of county superintendent, 
since the tendency of the stronger and better prepared 
men is to seek the city superintendencies rather than the 
county superintendency. In some of the states the effect 
of this discrimination is seen in the fact that men are no 
longer seeking the office of county superintendent, and 
the places are being filled by women. In Iowa, for ex- 
ample, sixty out of ninety-nine county superintendents 
are women, and the proportion is increasing. It is beyond 
question that many of the strongest and most efficient 
county superintendents in the country are women, yet 
the tendency to eliminate men from the office probably 
tends on the whole to weaken it. 

The method of selecting the county superintendent in 
twenty-eight of the forty-one states having this mode of 

_ ^ . supervision is by popular election, thus 

County supenn- \ , „ , ,..,', 

tendent chosen by makmg the office purely political. The 
political methods evils growing out of this system are 
one of the greatest obstacles in the way of proper rural- 
school supervision. In Maryland, Louisiana, North 
Carolina, Georgia and Iowa the county superintendents 
are appointed by county boards of education ; in Tennes- 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 335 

see by the court ; in Indiana and Pennsylvania by school 
trustees or directors; in Delaware by the governor; and 
in New Jersey by the state commission o£ education. 
I The length of term is short, only two years in twenty- 
two states, three years in two states and four years in 
Length of term fourteen states. This, coupled with 
too short the uncertainty of reelection makes 

the initiation and carrying out of any extensive 
plans or policies practically impossible. It also con- 
stantly puts the county superintendent under the temp- 
tation to shape his activities so as to placate public opin- 
ion. In hundreds, if not thousands, of counties the of- 
fice is subject to the unwritten political rule of "two terms 
and out." Such a system deprives the county superintend- 
ent of one of the greatest incentives to progressive en- 
deavor, since, no matter how successful his work, the ro- 
tation of the political wheel is sure to drop him out to 
make way for a successor. Not only do such irrational 
conditions hamper the occupant of the ofifice after his 
election, but they serve to deter desirable candidates from 
seeking it. 

j While, however, the county superintendency suffers 
under so many handicaps, it has great possibilities, and 

I ^ , , , , will no doubt continue to be the cen- 

Office should be , ^^ . ., • • r 

freed from limi- tral orhce m the supervision of our 

tations rural schools. The great problem, 

therefore, is to free the office from its limitations, and 
strengthen it for the great tasks that lie before it in the 
reconstruction of the rural schools. The salaries should 
be increased in all the states, and very greatly increased 
in many of them. Several southern states pay the coun- 
ty superintendent but a few hundred dollars a year, while 
onQ western state by constitutional enactment limits the 



336 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

salary to seventy-five dollars a month, or less than is 
received by teachers in ordinary school positions in the 
state. And even Indiana, with all its boasted improve- 
ment in rural education, pays a maximum salary of about 
fourteen hundred dollars to the county superintendent, 
with a minimum as low as eight hundred dollars. In 
this state the allowance for clerical work is only about 
thirty dollars a month, thus greatly hampering the super- 
intendent with duties other than those of supervision. It 
is not uncommon for superintendents to s'pend annually 
as much as two hundred dollars of their own salary in 
traveling expenses and office service that they may the 
better supervise their schools. School patrons and tax- 
payers need to be brought to see the short-sighted econ- 
omy that will allow millions of dollars of school funds 
to be expended under such imperfect conditions of super- 
vision as these facts suggest. 

The conditions under which the county superintendent 
is chosen also need to be changed. In this country where 
politics is both a diversion and a business it is difficult to 
remove any public office wholly from politics. But it is 
a crime against the youth in our schools to make this edu- 
cational office a political plaything, and subject to the 
exigencies of political fortunes. That we are willing to 
do so betrays a failure to look on education in a wholly 
serious light. There is no more reason why the county 
superintendency should be voted on at a political election, 
or the nominations be made in party primaries or caucuses 
than the city superintendency. The fruits of this method 
are seen in the fact that in a recent election in an im- 
portant state, several of the county superintendents 
elected had never been engaged in school work at all, 
being small business men or workmen. In several in- 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 337 

stances also, the candidates elected were unable to obtain 
a teacher's certificate such as that held by the majority of 
teachers of their county. 

In order to escape such a travesty on supervision, the 
plan is being developed in about a dozen states at present 
Appointment by "^^ having the county superintendent 
non-partisan board appointed by a non-partisan county 
board, thus removing the office as far as possible from 
politics. Under this system, the board is not limited to 
candidates from its own county, but may seek the best 
material wherever it is to be found. Such a board will 
retain a successful officer for an indefinite period, and 
free him from the worry and uncertainty of political elec- 
tions ; and they also find it possible to dismiss an incompe- 
tent official without waiting for the expiration of the 
customary two terms. The advantages of this system of 
election are too obvious to require discussion. 

With higher salaries, a more rational method of selec- 
tion, and more secure tenure of service, the qualifications 

^ -.- ,. , of the county superintendent will nat- 

Qualifications for / ^, __, , .. 

the office to be urally be advanced. Under the condi- 

advanced tions of the past it has been impossible 

to insist on as high an average of preparation for this 
office as for the city superintendencies. In general, the 
requirements at present are but slightly higher than for 
teaching in the rural schools, and in many states, no 
higher. In but twenty-seven of the forty-one states em- 
ploying county superintendents is any educational prep- 
aration required for eligibility to election. Only seven- 
teen require experience in teaching. Fourteen states re- 
quire no educational qualification whatever, though of 
course many of the county superintendents in these states 
are, notwithstanding, well qualified. 



338 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS ' --- . 

The county superintendent should be well trained scho- 

lastically and professionally, and should have had ex- 

„ tensive experience in educational 

Scholastic training , t^ u i j u xi. i i j 

** work. He should be the real leader 

of his teachers and the school patrons in all that pertains 
to culture and education. He should be a person of broad 
and quick sympathies and deep insight, with a great ca- 
pacity for loyal friendships, and the ability to offer help- 
ful constructive criticism. 

But above all, the county superintendent should be in 
sympathy with rural life and a leader in its activities. 
Sympathy with Under the growing ideals for rural 

country life schools, it is almost necessary that he 

shall have had practical experience in agriculture, and also 
be thoroughly grounded in its scientific foundations. He 
needs to understand manual training, and the principles 
of domestic science, and be able to organize and correlate 
the work in these new subjects with the remainder of the 
curriculum. He must deeply believe in country life, and 
in farming as a desirable career, and thus be able to 
attract young people to the farm instead of leading them 
away from it. 

In short, in far the larger part of the country, the 
county superintendency occupies the strategic position in 
the reorganization of the rural 
Sfead'^oMh? schools. The influence of this office is 

county super- paramount, and as it succeeds or fails, 

inten en ^^ ^jj^ ^^^ movement for country-life 

education succeed or fail. That this statement is true is 
abundantly shown by the results attained in certain 
countiies, and the educational lethargy prevailing in others 
possessing similar advantages to begin with. Not a few 
county superintendents have become national in their 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 339 

fame for the work done in the rural schools of an ordi- 
nary agricultural county. Men from a dozen states have 
come to visit their schools and discover the secret of their 
success. And this secret, when found, always consists 
in a clear ideal of the function of the rural school as the 
most valuable possession of the rural community, coupled 
with the vision, devotion and capacity necessary to real- 
ize this ideal in practise. Stating the same truth differ- 
ently, wherever there is found a region of rural schools 
far surpassing those of surrounding regions, there it is 
safe to inquire who are the county superintendents re- 
sponsible for this excellence and progress. 

But even with the conditions surrounding the office of 
the county superintendent remedied, there still remains 
County superin- ^^^ necessity of supplying a sufficient 
tendent must be number of deputies or assistants. In- 
given assistants stead of receiving a visit of super- 
vision annually, the rural schools should be visited every 
few weeks, or even every few days if necessary, by a 
skilful supervisor who knows how to assist the teacher 
in solving the difficult problems that are sure to arise. 

This movement has already begun in many places. But 
West Virginia has done more toward perfecting it than 
any other state. State Superintendent W. P. Shawkey 
and his rural school supervisor, L. J. Hanifan, have been 
giving special attention to this phase of rural education 
and their splendid work along this line is attracting the 
attention of educators from far and near. In many 
states this movement is known as "The West Virginia 
Plan of Rural Supervision," and it seeks to give county 
superintendents a sufficient number of district superin- 
tendents to make it only necessary for each one of these 
district supervisors to have from twenty to fifty teachers 



340 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

under his jurisdiction. In this way, frequent and help- 
ful visits can be made to each teacher throughout the 
school year. The states of Oregon, Kentucky, North 
Dakota, Indiana, Pennsylvania and many of the southern 
states are now organizing a similar system. County rural 
supervisors as assistants to county superintendents be- 
gan work in more than one hundred counties in south- 
ern states in 1912. Another form of assistance given the 
county superintendent is that of special supervisors ap- 
pointed to oversee the teaching of certain lines of work 
in all the schools of the county, or as many townships as 
may be assigned. This plan is so far limited chiefly to 
the southern states, where it is meeting with excellent 
success. Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi and Louisiana all employ such supervisors in 
certain counties, and the movement is spreading. 

One of the most interesting of recent attempts to add 
this type of supervision is in the states of Louisiana and 

_ . . - Georgia. The plan was initiated by 

Beginnings of . , ., , , , 

industrial private philanthropy, and taken over 

supervision ^jy ^j^g school authorities when it had 

proved its success. The project is described by its 
founder as follows :^ 

"In the summer of 1909 consent was obtained of the 
superintendent and school board of Putnam county, 
Georgia, to accept an industrial teacher for the rural 
elementary schools of the county. The teacher came in 
September. She was thoroughly experienced in country 
teaching, familiar with cooking, sewing, and home-keep- 
ing; had managed successfully a small but first-class 
farm ; was modest, tactful, and industrious ; but owned no 
diploma. She was placed under the direction of the 

* Bulletin Number four hundred and eighty-two, United States 
Bureau of Education, page seven. 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 341 

superintendent, but with the understanding that she 
should manage for herself, he lending such assistance as 
he could. The plan was to visit the schools in succession, 
spending some days in each district on the first round. 
At the beginning the industrial teacher was taken around 
and introduced by the superintendent. She became ac- 
quainted with the individual teachers and the pupils, talked 
to the girls about sewing and cooking ; to the boys about 
shopwork, a garden, cleaning up, and improvements to 
house and grounds. She helped with the teaching, talked 
clubs, library, and wherever possible arranged for some 
domestic science. She was invited to the homes, took 
a hand in the kitchen, talked crops and stock to 
the farmers, and chickens, vegetables and flowers 
to the mother. This was repeated on following 
visits. Soon canning clubs and school improvement 
clubs were organized ; meetings were held ; a library fund 
was started ; 'socials' and suppers were given to raise 
money and get together ; a new schoolhouse was pro- 
jected ; a longer school term considered ; and more homes 
were visited. There was usually a cordial response; if 
not on the first visit, then at the next. It was not long be- 
fore this teacher was very much in demand, freely sent 
for, and entertained. She was not an instructor, but a 
visitor, adviser, and leader. 

"The plan proved acceptable and has needed no 
changes. The superintendent and board regarded it as 

an important addition to the schools. 

Success of the plan -- , • 1 • i. i. j 

Cookmg and sewmg were started 

in many places, an additional tax was voted, 
the teachers were helped. Perhaps the most im- 
portant was the awakening of social interest and the inter- 



342 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

course with the families at home. For the second year 
the boys' and girls' clubs were organized to make a joint 
exhibit at the county fair, with a liberal prize list. In 
one consolidated school a full shop and kitchen were in- 
stalled, money was raised by subscription for additional 
room, and an industrial teacher employed. Social gather- 
ings and public meetings became common, the school- 
house became the social center. Doing things became 
fashionable. For the third year the board unanimously 
took over the teacher and assumed the salary, which in- 
cludes the very small expenses. 

"Before the end of the first year applications had been 
received from other counties. Three additional teachers. 
Growth of indus- °^ qualifications about similar to the 
trial supervision first, were added. One of these was 
placed in Putnam county, one in Oconee, one in Douglas, 
and the first teacher went to Greene. The same course 
was followed in the new counties with the same results. 
The superintendents were exceedingly helpful, gracious, 
and approving. For the third year, Morgan, Jones and 
Hancock counties were supplied, a number of applications 
being still on the waiting list. The original teacher was 
made supervisor, to visit and help the others. There have 
been two gatherings of all the teachers and some of the 
superintendents to become acquainted and compare notes. 
No change in the plan has been suggested. There are no 
rules; no statistical reports are required, but there is 
much correspondence. The teachers are furnished free 
to the counties for two years, after which the county as- 
sumes the charge." 

The new projects now under way in rural education 
make some form of closer supervision almost imperative. 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 343 

Agriculture is a required subject in the rural schools of 

about twenty states, and will soon spread to most of the 

XT I.- . 1 others. Manual training and domes- 

New subjects make . , ° 

closer supervision tic science are but a step behind, 
necessary These subjects are new, and the 

teachers are less well prepared in them than in the older 
subjects. Suitable text-books are not available in all the 
new lines, and the course of study to be followed in pre- 
senting them is not fully agreed on. Further, the new 
branches must be adjusted to the remainder of the cur- 
riculum. These are all difficult and delicate problems, 
and the teacher must have help in solving them, else 
much of their value will be lost and our promising at- 
tempt at progress will fail. 

It is true that consolidation of the rural schools will 
greatly help in solving the problem of supervision. For 
there will be fewer schools to visit, and the principals of 
the consolidated schools will be able to render assistance 
to their teachers. Yet, at its best, the task of supervising 
the schools of an entire county will remain gigantic, and 
the office of county superintendent will require the high- 
est and most efficient type of educational ability available. 

The state superintendent is also an important factor in 
the supervision of rural schools. In the past, the greater 
part of his influence has been felt 
tendenf an^fmpSr- through the medium of the county 
tant factor in superintendents, whom he has coun- 

supervision seled, and whose work he has 

in some degree directed. Through his influence 
courses of study have been adopted, the require- 
ments for teachers have been shaped and unified, and 
legislation favorable to rural education has been pro- 



344 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

moted. During recent years, however, a large number of 
the states have provided for deputies under the state 
superintendent M^hose special duty has been the general 
supervision of the rural education of the state. 

These rural supervisors are doing a remarkable work, 
especially in certain of the southern states. During the 

Special state ^^^^ y^^^ ^^^ states of South Carolina 

supervisors and Mississippi have sent their rural 

supervisors, W. K. Tate and W. H. Smith, respectively, 
to Denmark and other foreign countries for the purpose 
of preparing them to do still more for the rural schools 
in their states. In some states, a supervisor of industrial 
training has also been added. These officers have been an 
important factor in stimulating the interest in rural edu- 
cation and in shaping and guiding the direction of rural 
school reforms. 

Taken altogether, therefore, the signs are very hopeful 
in the field of rural-school supervision. We have the 
-, , - ti w fundamental agencies at hand to ren- 
for rural su- der effective service. The county will 

pervision remain the unit of supervision for the 

greater part of the country. The office of county super- 
intendent will increase in importance and in responsibility. 
The necessary assistants will be supplied to provide per- 
sonal supervision for every rural teacher, and to unify 
the work of the schools of the county. The state super- 
intendent, through his relations to the county superin- 
tendents and through his special rural-school supervisors, 
will be able to stimulate and unify the work of the rural 
schools of the whole state. The opportunities and duties 
of the supervisors of the rural schools are perfectly 
definite and clear. There are men and women of the 
required training and ability to fill acceptably those su- 



THE SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 345 

pervisory positions. It only remains for us to surround 
the supervisory offices by such conditions, and support 
them with such social and financial rewards, that the 
highest type of ability and devotion can be claimed for 
these most important of all educational positions. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. How often does the county superintendent visit 
your schools? How much real help are such infrequent 
visits? Do you often meet problems on which you would 
like advice from the superintendent? 

2. Compare the work of a county superintendent and 
a city superintendent. Compare the salaries. Do you 
think there are any more important responsibilities re- 
quired of a city superintendent than of a county superin- 
tendent? How do you account for the difference in 
salaries? 

3. Compare the educational requirements of the two 
positions. Why should one be in politics any more than 
the other? Why should one be required to work twelve 
months out of the year for less salary than the one who 
works but nine or ten? 

4. Are the rural teachers less deserving of efficient 
supervision than are town or city teachers, bearing in 
mind that the former usually have two or three times 
the number of grades to teach? 

5. Compare the number of beginning teachers in your 
rural districts or township with the number of beginning 
teachers in your towns or cities. Why do the rural 
teachers prefer to work in graded schools? Do not 
the town and city teachers put in as many hours per 
day ? Does not the average teacher prefer to work where 
she can have the advantage of closer supervision? Is 
it not a fact that rural teachers would rather have their 



346 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

superintendent visit them several times each month than 
once or twice each year? 

6. Why do rural teachers change schools so much 
more frequently than do urban teachers? Does not the 
lack of adequate and efficient supervision account for 
this to a great extent? 

7. Do not one or two insignificant and groundless 
complaints from a patron often cost a good rural teacher 
her position? Would these same complaints have any 
weight with a city or county superintendent who has 
visited this teacher every week or month throughout 
the school year? 



CHAPTER XXII 

FINANCIAL SUPPORT 

The surest test of the loyalty and appreciation attach- 
ing to any institution is the willingness to pay for its 

„,.„. ^ advantages. Granting the necessary 

Willingness to pay ^ . f , .,. , °. , 

a test of ap- financial ability, therefore, the meas- 

preciation y^^e of support accorded to the rural 

schools indicates the esteem in which they are held by 
their patrons, and the value attached to the education 
these schools represent. The rural schools originated in 
the pioneer days when poverty and privation were the 
common experience of those who dared to claim the new 
regions. The school shared in the general poverty, as 
was right it should, and was perforce satisfied with its 
meager equipment, which was on a par with other stand- 
ards of the day. 

But the pioneer days are gone, and the farmers have 
become the most prosperous and well-to-do of our indus- 
trial groups. They constitute a class of high intelligence, 
and control one of the most fundamental and important 
of all occupations. Their wealth has increased until the 
amount invested in agriculture is more than twice that 
devoted to manufactures. During the present generation 
the value of farm holdings has more than doubled, and 
the tendency is still upward. The present reign of pros- 
perity has favored the farmer more than any other class 
of workers. 

347 



348 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Has the rural school shared in the general ad- 
vance in prosperity that has reached the farms ? Taking 
the country as a whole the expenditures for public educa- 
tion have more than doubled during the last decade. This 
is a marvelous advance, probably never before equaled in 
the history of any country. Has the rural school received 
its share of added support, or is it still on the basis of the 
pioneer days when rigid economy was the price of bare 
existence ? 

While the rural schools have reaped some benefit from 

the great advance in wealth and prosperity, they have 

-,. 1 t. 1 not received their full share. In 

The rural school 

has not shared buildmgs, equipment and salary they 

prosperity ^^^ g^j|| ^qq j^g^j. ^j^g qJ^j level. Towns 

and cities have erected commodious and attractive build- 
ings, and supplied them with the necessary material and 
apparatus for efficient work. But, excepting for the oc- 
casional country school, the rural schools are yet stranded 
dangerously near the poverty line. Log schoolhouses are 
common in the South, and are still to be found in use in 
such northern states as Indiana and Illinois. At least 
five thousand primitive log buildings are in use for rural- 
school purposes. Colorado employs more than three hun- 
dred sod, adobe or log school buildings, with other equip- 
ment to match. An actual survey of all the rural schools 
for whites in twenty-eight counties of eight southern 
states recently showed that fully half of the fifteen hun- 
dred and seventy-nine schools were being held in old, 
weather-beaten buildings, a large proportion of which had 
never been painted, and a considerable number of which 
had never been ceiled — mere shells of cabins. Thirty per 
cent, of these schools used home-made desks similar to 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 349 



1. WASHINGTON ®®®(|)®®( 

2 CALIFORNIA a)®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®?? 

3. NEW YORK ®©®©®®®®®®®®©®®®®®®®®®®®® 25 

4. MASSACHUSETTS®®®®®®®®©®®®®®®®©©®®®®®®® 25 

5. NEVADA ®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®©®®®®® 25 

6. MONTANA ©®®©®®®®®®©®®®®®<S®®®®®®® 24 

7. COLORADO ®®®®(r®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®® 24 
6 ILLI N0I3 ®®®®®©®®®®©(P.)®®®®®®®®®®® 25 
9. OHIO ®®®®©S>®©CjX!;®©®®®®'D®®®®® 22 

10 CONNECTICUT ©®©@®®®©®®©®®®®©®©®®®®22 
(I.NEW JERSEY ®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®22 
IZN. DAKOTA ®©®®®®®©®®®<|)®©®®®®®®®21 



13 ARIZONA ®®®®®®®®®®®©©®®®®®®®® 21 

14 VERMONT ®®©®®®®®®®'©®©®®©®®®®® 21 

15 OREGON ®®®®®®®©©®®®®®©®®®®®® 2\ 

16 RHODE I SLAN D ®®®®®®®® ®®®®®®®®®©®®® 2 f 

17 WYOMING ®®®®®©©®®®©®®®®©®®®® 20 

18. UTAH ®®®®®®®®®©®®®®©®®®®® 20 

19. MINNESOTA ®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®® 20 

20 IDAHO ©®@®®©(iXD®©®©®©®®®®®®20 

21 N. HAMPSHIRE ®®®®®©®®®®®®®®®®®®®® 20 
225 DAKOTA ®®®®®®®®©®®®®©®®®©®® 20 
23, IOWA ®®©®©0©®®®®®®®®©®©®® 20 
24JNDIANA ®®®®®©®®®®©®®®©®©®® 19 



25. MICHIGAN ®®®©®®®®®®®®®®®©®® 13 

26 PENNSYLVANIA®®®®®®®®©®®®®®®©®® 18 

27 NEBRASKA ®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®® 15. 

28 MAINE ®®®®©®©©®0®®®®®®® 17 
29KAN5A5 ®®®©®®©®©®®©@®®® 16 
30 WfcSCONSIN ®®®©®®®®®®®®©®®I5- 

.51 MISSOURI ®®®®®®®©®®®®®®14 

32 OKLAHOMA ®®®®®®®®®®©®®I3 
33W VIRGINIA ®®®®®®®®®®®ll 

34 DELAVvARE ®®®©®©®®®®®l|- 

35 MARYLAND ®®©©©®®®®® 10 
36rL0RIDA ,®®®©®®®®8 



57 N.MEXICO ®®®©®®®®8' 

38 LOUISIANA ,®®®®®®© 7 

39 TEXAS ®©®0©®©7 
^OKENTUCKT ®©®®©©©7 

41 VIRGINIA ®©®®®®6 

42 ARKANSAS ®®©®®® 5 

43 TENNESSEE ®®®®®© 6 

44 GEORGIA ®®®®4- 
4i MISSISSIPPI ®®®®4 
4 6 .ALABAMA ® ®©® 4 
47 N CAROLINA ®®®®4 
^3. CAROLINA 



Annual expenditure per cliild of school age for school purposes in each 
state in 1910. — Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



350 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

those found in the colonial schools buildings of two hun- 
dred and fifty years ago, and twenty-seven schools re- 
ported no desks of any kind, but only rude benches for 
seats. A similar survey in from one to three counties 
in each of seven northern states revealed conditions no 
whit better, if the difference in economic conditions is 
considered. The latter report concludes that in these 
northern states the buildings are for the most part old 
and out of date — one room, low ceilings, dingy and dark. 
The grounds are bleak and bare of beauty or attractive- 
ness and, like the buildings, poorly kept.^ 

Even town and village schoolhouses, to say nothing of 
city buildings, are now warmed by steam or circulating 
The poverty of currents of heated air, are thoroughly 
the rural school ventilated and have provisions for 
sanitary drinking fountains and other hygienic equipment. 
But more than half of the country schools of all the states 
are yet heated by an unprotected stove set in the middle 
of the room, radiating its heat directly on the pupils. One 
out of eight of all rural schools is entirely innocent of 
shades for the windows, the sun finding unhindered ac- 
cess to the room. Less than one school out of twelve has 
any janitor service provided except that given by the 
overworked teacher; hence cleaning days are few and 
far between. Three-fourths of the rural schools of the 
entire country are without water supply on the premises, 
while about one out of five has no water within a quarter 
of a mile. The common drinking cup and the old wooden 
or rusty tin water pail are still in common use. Half the 
outhouses are an insult to decency and a menace to 
morals. 

^ See Bulletin Number five hundred and fifteen, United States 
Bureau of Education, page thirty-one. 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 351 



2 ARIZONA •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 50 

5 WASHINGTON •••••••••^••••eO9**0*««»««e*«O 50 

4 N DAKOTA ••••••••••••••••e«««««»««*« 27 

5. WYOMING 09«0*e««00««««»««e99»««9«0« Z7 

6 COLORADO e«««*««*«*« •••••«•••••••••• ^ 7 

7. CALIFORNIA ••••••e»«*9**tt»0*«9e««9a«» 26 

& IDAHO •••••••••ee •••••••••••••• 25 

Q. 5 DAKOTA #•••••••••••••••••••••••• 25 

10. MONTANA •••••••0««»*««««**0«)«»«0* 25 

1 1 . OREGON •••••••••••••••••••••••• 24 

12. MINNE50TA •••»•••••••••••••«••••• 23 

13 ILLINOIS ••••0««0«»«*«»tt«e«a««9 22 

14 NCW YORK •••••^••••••••99999—22. 

15 INDIANA •••••••^•••••0«««*«*« 21 

16 NEW JERSEY •••••••••••••••••••• 20 

17 UTAH •••••••••••••••0*tt««20 

18 OHIO •••••«9««*««««««««*«EO 

19 MASSACHUSEnSOO«««««*««0«0««**«« 19 

20 N HAMP5HIRE«00**««««9««*««*««« 19 
.21. NEBRASKA •••••••••••••••••••19 

22 IOWA •••••••••••••••••• 13 

23 PENN?aVANlA«^^^^^^^»^^^^^^^^^l8 

24 VERMONT •••••••••••••••••• Id 

25 RHODE ISLAND^«*«*^*^^^^^^^^*^^ Id 

26 N. MEXICO ••••••••••••••••• 17 

27 MISSOURI '•••••••••••••••••17 

28 CONNECTICUT •••••••••••••••••17 

Z9 KANSAS •••••••••••••••••17 

30 MICHIGAN •••••••••••••••••17 

51 WISCONSIN ••••••••••••••••16 

52 MAINE ••••••••••••••••16 

53 OKLAHOMA ••••••••••••••• 15 

'54 W.VIRGINIA •••••••••••••••15 

55 LOUISIANA. •••••••••••••••15 

56rL0RIDA •••••••••••••• 14 

37 DELAWARE •••••••••••••13 

3a MARYLAND •••••••••••••IS 

!39 TEXAS ••••••••••••12 

UO KENTUCKY ••••••••••••12 

'41. ARKANSAS ••••••••••• II 

142 VIRGINIA •••••••••••!! 

143 ALABAMA •••••••••9 

44. MI55ISS1 PPI •••••••• a 

j45i TENNESSEE ••••••••S 

We GEORGIA ••••••• 7 

47 N CAROLINA •••••••7 

|<W. 3. CAROLINA •••••••y 

Cost of one day's schooling per child in each state in 1910. Each black 
dot represents one cent. — Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



352 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

On tHe whole, we are obliged to conclude that the great 
majority of rural schools are housed in uncomfortable 
Unsuitable ^"^ unsuitable buildings, unadapted 

equipment for school purposes from almost 

every standpoint, without proper furniture, and lacking 
in facilities for heating, ventilating and lighting ; further, 
that the rural schools are without adequate provisions for 
guarding the health and morals of the children, and pos- 
sess very little equipment for teaching. And this is the 
treatment we accord some six million American boys and 
girls when we send them to school! Is it any wonder 
that many of them are not enthusiastic over their oppor- 
tunities, or the type of life to which such conditions are 
related ! 

Rural schools are supported little or no better in the 

matter of current expenditure than in equipment. The 

_ , . , salaries of rural teachers are too low 

Salanes too low • 111 

m most states to demand or obtam 

efficiency. Coffman found in a recent study^ of more 
than five thousand rural teachers scattered over various 
states, that the average man teaching in the rural schools 
receives a salary of barely three hundred and ninety dol- 
lars a year, and the average woman of three hundred and 
sixty-six dollars a year. Men teaching in towns and 
cities receive about double the salary of those teaching in 
the country, and women slightly under twice as much. 
While it is difficult to get accurate data on general wages, 
the best figures available from government reports indi- 
cate that the average annual wages received by the work- 
ers in five great occupations are as follows: Carpenters, 
eight hundred and two dollars ; coal miners, six hundred 
dollars ; factory workers, five hundred and fifty dollars ; 

* The Social Composition of the Teaching Force. 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 



ll.CAUFORNIA 919 




353' 



^19 MINNESOTA 48« 
(20 MICHIGAN 4^80 
^21 NEvajOA *70 
.r22. WISCONSIN 4SA 
■\tZ3, MISSOURI 443 
^24.. WYOMING 43» 
"25. KANSAS ^'^tf 
26.L0UI3IANA 415 

;27DELAWAPC4.l* 
ea.NEOPASMA 4lt 
^ ^9 OilLAHOMA 40d 
t-30.TrVAS 384 
fSI. NZW MZXiCO 34« 
-_ NORTH DAKOTA SSO 
^S KENTUCKY 337 

' :l'Tk DAKOTA 323 
rSS.NEw KAMPSNiRe 528 

" "^WE3T_yiBIQINlA ,52s 

- - 2 
•39 TtNMESSEE 293 

Vf-^-l rt-OFtlDA ^7S 
\fi5-d2 VIRGINIA 268 

P^43. VERMONT gee 

-♦4 GEORqiA 2SO 
'45. MAINE 244 
46. S. CAROLINA 2; 2 
47 MISSISSIPPI p;o ' 
8.N CAROUNA 200 



Avferage annual salary of all public ^chcJol-teachers in each statts la 
1510. —Courtesy of Russell Sage Foundation. 



354 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

common laborers, five hundred and thirteen dollars ; all 
public school teachers, four hundred and eighty-five dol- 
lars. 

It is evident from these comparisons that teaching as 
an occupation is greatly underpaid ; but the rural teacher 
Humiliating suffers most of all. Throughout the 

comparisons southern states there are thousands 

of rural teachers who earn less than one hundred 
and fifty dollars a year. And even in New Eng- 
land, hundreds of rural teachers receive less than six 
dollars a week. One central Atlantic county averages 
only one hundred and twenty-nine dollars a year for all 
teachers in the county. One southern state lets its con- 
victs from the penitentiary to contractors at the rate of 
four hundred dollars a year, while at the same time the 
pay of its teachers is only about three hundred dollars a 
year. Another state succeeds in maintaining all its coun- 
try schools at an average of two hundred and eighty-six 
dollars a year for all expenses. 

Of course this all represents too low an expenditure 
for any reasonable standard of efficiency. Teachers can 
Efficiency depend- "0^ afford to spend money in special 
ent on salary preparation for such a return as their 

salary nets them. The amount they receive is less than a 
living wage, and leaves no margin for expenditure in the 
line of greater efficiency. Yet out of this meager amount 
they are obliged to pay for a certificate, attend teachers' 
meetings and conventions, perhaps subscribe for a pro- 
fessional journal, buy a few books, and otherwise keep 
up with the times. 

But it is useless to expect the impossible. It would be 
unfair to expect efficiency on any such basis as we have 
described, for something can not be had for nothing in 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 355 

education any more than in business. One can not sow 
parsimony and reap success. One of the results of this 
niggardly policy with reference to rural education is 
appalling, though not generally realized : that in spite 
of the unfavorable conditions in our cities, illiteracy in 
rural territory is twice as great as in urban territory.^ 
This is in spite of the fact that thousands of illiterate 
immigrants are crowded in the great industrial and manu- 
facturing centers. Illiteracy among children born of 
native parentage is more than three times as great as 
among the children born in this country of foreign par- 
entage, largely on account of the lack of educational op- 
portunities in rural America, where comparatively few 
immigrants live. The fact is that the people of rural 
America have been so busily employed in taming the rich 
prairies, garnering harvests from the alluvial plains, and 
building fortunes from the fruits of their own industry 
that they have neglected the education of their children. 
All this would be discouraging indeed were it not for 
the fact that many indications are now pointing to 
Signs of im- marked improvement in rural-school 

provement conditions. The movement toward 

consolidation has already been referred to. New build- 
ings in large numbers are under construction in many 
states, and are, as a rule, of a far better type than those 
they displace. Better grounds, equipment and accommo- 
dations are becoming the rule. Legislation is being ef- 
fected requiring that the plans for all new school build- 
ings must be approved by competent educational author- 
ity before the building is erected. State aid, where given 

* See Bulletin Number five hundred and fifteen. United States 
Bureau of Education, page ten. 



356 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

to rural schools, is given on the condition that certain re- 
quirements shall be met in respect to the type of building 
and its equipment. Salaries are also increasing. A num- 
ber of states have passed laws fixing the minimum salary 
at which teachers may be employed, and establishing that 
minimum considerably higher than it averages at present. 
(This will all help, but much yet needs to be accomplished. 
People are at best slow to move toward reform, and 
especially is this true when the change requires greater 
expenditure of money. But more money is the first 
requisite for the betterment of the rural schools, and no 
great advance can be made until this increased support is 
available. 

It is true that only a certain just proportion of a com- 
munity's wealth can go into education. For there are the 
Economic basis farms to improve, the homes to build, 
not lacking the machinery to buy, and many other 

things to accomplish, which require the expenditure of 
money. Yet it may well be doubted whether the farmer 
is at present putting even a fair proportion of his wealth 
into his children's schooling. Certain it is that as a 
nation we are not bankrupting ourselves in what we spend 
on public education, and the farmer least of all. It has 
been carefully estimated that we annually expend between 
two and three times as much for tobacco as for public 
education, and at least five times as much for liquor. In 
Iowa the egg crop pays for the current expense of the 
public schools, both urban and rural. Similar illustra- 
tions might be used to show that it is not poverty, but 
indifference, that explains the lack of financial support 
of schools in every state. The proportion of aggregate 
wealth spent annually on public education runs all the 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 



357 




358 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

way from seventy-five cents for every hundred dollars' 
worth of property in Oklahoma, and seventy-two cents 
for every hundred dollars' worth in Washington, down 
to twenty cents in Wyoming, and nineteen cents in New 
Hampshire. In spite of all the progress that has been 
made, it is probable that a considerably smaller propor- 
tion of the wealth of our people is going into education 
than was the case fifty or one hundred years ago. And 
this is especially true of the farming population. 

Averaging the country through, about seventy-two per 
cent, of the school revenue is derived from local taxes, 
Methods of levy- levied on the property of the district. 
ing school tax The proportion from this source 

ranges all the way from ninety-seven per cent, in Massa- 
chusetts to twenty-seven per cent, in Georgia. The re- 
mainder is practically all received from state taxation and 
the interest on permanent school funds. 

It is fully evident that, with the schools dependent for 
almost three-fourths of their revenue on local taxation 
voted by the people themselves, the financial status of the 
rural schools is dependent on local pride and interest in 
education. It is, of course, to be kept in mind that the 
property basis for taxation in rural districts is very dif- 
ferent from that in towns and cities. Farm values are 
not piled up in small areas like city values, hence the 
same territory can not supply an equal amount of school 
tax. Rural property can and should, however, pay as 
high a rate of school tax for the same school privileges as 
town and city property. Yet it does not pay so high a 
rate in any state, and the rate is much lower in most 
states. 

The approximate difference in the local school-tax rate 
in urban and rural districts is shown in the following 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 359 

instances cited in a recent work ; such instances might be 

indefinitely dupHcated from other states:^ 

"In Kansas, the local school tax paid in 19 10 was above 

eighty per cent, more than that paid by country districts. 

In Missouri the current report of the 

Local taxation , , • ^ j ^ 1 ^ 1 

state supermtendent shows towns and 

cities seventy-five per cent, higher than the country. 
In Minnesota, towns and cities average nearly three 
times the rate paid by rural districts. In Ohio, towns 
and cities are more than ten per cent, higher than 
rural districts, even where the rural districts main- 
tain a full elementary and high-school course. In Ne- 
braska and Iowa the town and city rate is fully double 
that of the country districts." The discrepancy is still 
further increased by the fact that the rural property is 
in general not assessed at as near its actual value as the 
tangible property of towns and cities. 

Of course the rural school-tax rate should not be so 
high as that of towns and cities when the latter are re- 
Farmers able to ceiving the advantages of fully organ- 
pay for schools ized elementary and high schools, and 
the former only of elementary schools of doubtful effi- 
ciency. But the point is, that the rural property in most 
sections of the country affords an adequate basis for 
much better financial support of the rural schools if its 
owners are only willing to pay as freely for the education 
of their children as is done by the urban residents. 

Educational advantages would be very greatly equalized 
and rural education in general much better supported if 
Larger taxing the method of levying school tax 

unit desirable should be changed to make the 

county instead of the individual district the unit. This 

* Betts, New Ideals in Rural Schools, page forty-four. 



36o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

would in a sense pool the burden of support, giving the 
children of the less favored communities equal oppor- 
tunities with those living in more wealthy regions. Be- 
cause of the unequal distribution of natural wealth, such 
as soil, mines, factories, location for cities, etc., this plan 
is wholly fair and just. It will never be possible under 
a local district system of taxation to make educational 
opportunities in any considerable degree equal. The 
presence of a railway running through one district and 
paying a heavy tax into the school treasury may allow 
excellent school privileges at a low personal tax rate, 
while an adjoining district may be condemned to a poor 
and inefficient school even while paying a high rate. But 
let the taxes be levied equally on the property of an entire 
county, and such inequalities will in large degree be 
eliminated.^ 

An extension of this idea has been carried out in a 
number of states by granting state aid to such schools as 
State aid to "^^^^ meet certain prescribed conditions 

schools as to the organization of their schools, 

the type of building and equipment, the studies taught, 
and the preparation of the teachers. Massachusetts be- 
gan this policy many years ago, and it has since been de- 
veloped in different forms in various states. State aid 
is now given for the consolidation of schools, for the 
organization of high schools, for the training of teachers 
in special courses in high schools, for the teaching of 
certain industrial branches in the schools, and for main- 
taining certain standards of work as shown by examina- 
tions given pupils in the schools. 

The method of levying and distributing school taxes 

^ See Cubberly, The Improvement of Rural Schools, Chapter 
Two. 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 361 

has, therefore, a very direct relation to the financial sup- 
port of rural education. The most desirable taxation sys- 
A combined county tern would probably be a system that 
tern best makes the county the basis of local 

tax levy, with a supplementary state tax paid equally to 
all schools of the county on condition that the local boards 
meet certain stipulated requirements. Added to this may 
be state aid for the carrying out of some special line of 
education vital to the interests and welfare of the state. 
No system of taxing machinery alone will solve the 
problem of better support of the rural schools, however. 
Taxes depend on For our taxes are, after all, finally 
public sentiment voted by the people or their repre- 
sentatives. And only as the patrons of the rural school 
are aroused to the necessity for better education for their 
children, and to the possibilities inherent in the rural 
school will more money be forthcoming for school sup- 
port. Many are indifferent to the advantages of educa- 
tion, and still look on it rather as an accomplishment than 
a necessity. They want their children to be able to read 
and write, but their ideal of education goes little beyond 
this. Others believe in a general way in education, but do 
not realize how meager and inefficient is the training 
offered by the average rural school. They have slight 
basis for comparing the advantages of different schools, 
or else rather helplessly look on the type of education 
given town children as beyond what they can afford for 
their own. Still others contend in a blind sort of way 
that the rural school is now offering excellent opportu- 
nities for education, not a few asserting that the district 
school is far ahead of the town school in what it can do 
for its pupils. Finally, there are those who frankly and 
defiantly object to any plan or project that will cost the 



362 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

district additional expense, and measure all values by this 
one criterion. These are the ones who seek the teacher 
willing to accept the lowest salary, who oppose improve- 
ments in building or equipment, and whose first question 
concerning any new plan is whether it will result in 
greater expense. 

What the rural community needs more than anything 
else is an educational revival that will touch the pocket- 
Need of an educa- books, causing the taxpayers to see 
tional revival in the school an opportunity for finan- 

cial investment, and also an opportunity to pay the debt 
that society owes to the children. Good schools yield an 
abundant return in dollars and cents, but this is not the 
only reason they should be well supported ; they also pay 
as great returns in largeness of life, happiness and effi- 
ciency. And it is good for a community to conceive its 
school in this light as well as in the other. 

The rural schools require better financial support ; there 
is abundant wealth to supply this support. The problem 
is to make this need clear to those who control the purse- 
strings, to convince them that money spent on education 
is well invested, and finally to arrange our tax machinery 
better so as to equalize the financial burden of supporting 
the schools. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. What reasons lie back of the fact that the rural 
schools have lagged so far behind the town schools in 
financial support? Are the farmers as well able to pay 
a reasonable tax rate as city people? 

2. School-tax rates in towns and cities usually average 
from two to three times as high as in the country. Com- 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT 363 

pare the rates for a township in your county. (The as- 
sessor or county auditor can supply rate.) 

3. Make a somewhat detailed comparison of all lines 
of recent improvement in town and rural schools of 
your county. Also compare school interest and loyalty. 
How do you account for the difference? What needs 
to be done? 

4. What has been the trend in salaries in your county 
recently? Is it fair to demand better preparation of 
teachers if salaries are to be raised, or are present stand- 
ards high enough? 

5. Where does your state rank (according to the 
chart shown in the chapter) in the proportion of its total 
wealth going into education? Do you think the people 
should be taught to want to spend more for education? 

6. Can you state the argument for and against a 
county versus a township basis for school taxation? 
For a large proportion of state tax going to support 
schools? (See Cubberly as cited in chapter.) 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 

New methods must obtain in providing for the care of 
rural-school buildings and grounds. Three factors have 
Factors demanding arisen that render this imperative: 
change of methods (i) The increased burden and re- 
sponsibility thrust on the teacher by the addition of new 
subjects to the curriculum and the demand for higher 
standards of teaching; (2) the growing insistence for 
improved hygienic conditions in the school, which entails 
much additional work in the care of the building; (3) the 
larger size of the rural- school buildings and the greater 
amount of equipment demanding care and attention. 

From time immemorial a part of the rural teacher's 
duties have been to serve as school janitor. In early New 
England this custom extended to village schools also, and 
not infrequently the schoolmaster had not only the care 
of the schoolhouse, but of the church as well. That there 
might be no question that he fully earned his salary, the 
task of digging the village graves was often added to his 
responsibilities. But with the passing of the pioneer 
days, the town and city teachers have escaped the de- 
mands of manual labor about the buildings. Such work 
has been handed over to janitors employed especially for 
this service. 

But this is not the case in rural schools. More than 
ninety per cent, of the rural teachers of the United States 

364 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 365 

are still expected to do all the janitor work required by 
the school, and in most cases without extra compensation 
Rural teachers and therefor. This is to say that the 
janitor service rural community has not yet come to 

look on teaching as skilled labor, much less as a pro- 
fessional occupation, since a considerable portion of the 
time for which the teacher is employed is required in the 
simplest kind of manual work. 

The rural teacher should not be required nor allowed to 
perform the janitor service for any school. This is not a 
question of the teacher being above the manual work in- 
volved; there is nothing degrading in the mere fact of 
sweeping and dusting a room and starting a fire. The 
question is rather one of business and professional ex- 
pediency. Can the district afford to have the teacher de- 
vote time and energy to such employment, and can the 
teacher afford to spend his time and energy in such a 
manner? 

It is a very serious problem that the rural teacher of 
the present confronts in making daily preparation for his 
work. In the district schools he is attempting to teach 
twenty-five or more recitations a day. These classes em- 
brace almost the whole scope of the elementary curric- 
ulum and deal with children of all ages from five or six 
years up to fifteen or eighteen. In the old-time school, 
the teacher who was prepared in arithmetic, reading, 
writing and perhaps geography, had covered the range re- 
quired of him. Preparation for the day's work, therefore, 
included only these few branches. There were no nature 
study, agriculture and domestic-science lessons to plan. 
Literature, history, art and music demanded none of his 
attention. Corn clubs, canning clubs and school gardens 
made no inroads on his time. There were no scientific 



366 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

experiments to prepare, no home projects to supervise, 
and no language themes to correct or examination papers 
to grade. 

The rural teacher of to-day has all these demands on 
his time and strength. The burden is already far too 

Whole of teacher's ^^^^^' ^"^ "'^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^"^ ^^ ^^^ 
time and energy of teachers in any other section of our 
belong to teaching g^^hool system. The rural teacher 
should therefore have thrust on him no outside duties 
that will take his time, distract his attention, endanger 
his health, or in any way lower his energy ; for the prob- 
lems of teaching require every resource of mind and 
body. It is a short-sighted policy and a false view of 
economy that permit a school board to devote any part 
of the teacher's time to such work as sweeping, dusting 
and the care of the room. For these things can be 
done equally well by less expensive labor. 

The time that thousands of rural teachers are required 
to spend each morning in building the fire and getting the 

_. • J r room ready for the day's work is one 

Time required for -^ r i i r , 

preparation or of the best hours of the day for the 

recreation study and planning of lessons. This 

time should be devoted to preparing for higher efficiency 
in teaching — to reviewing for the recitation, to outlining 
new projects of work, to professional reading and 
thought. When the teacher arrives at the building in the 
morning he should find it well heated, cleaned and aired, 
and all in readiness for beginning the day. He should 
have no more direct responsibility for the care of the 
schoolroom than has the town teacher. To violate this 
simple and obvious business principle shows an out-of- 
date and narrow policy that ill matches the progressive 
spirit now ruling in commercial and industrial affairs. 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 367 

The teacher needs all the time that is free from the 
actual school-day and preparation for the succeeding 
day's work in healthful exercise and recreation out-of- 
doors. The hour, more or less, demanded for the daily 
care of the schoolroom is of necessity stolen from study, 
reading and recuperation. The custom, prevalent in many 
communities, of paying the teacher a slight sum addi- 
tional to the regular salary for doing the janitor work 
can not be too strongly condemned; nor should any 
teacher enter into such an arrangement. Where the 
board is willing to pay for the janitor service, the work 
should be done by some person other than the teacher. 

Careful statistical studies have shown beyond ques- 
tion that teaching is one of the most unhealthful occu- 

-, , . pations, and is highly exhausting to the 

Teaching an un- ^ ' , , ^ ; . ,. \^ 

healthful occupa- general health and vitality. Not a 

tion at best jjttle of this difficulty comes from the 

long hours spent in a dusty and ill-kept room, usually 
in an atmosphere breathed many times over, and not in- 
frequently shared by those who have communicable dis- 
eases. The dangers are clearly increased by requiring the 
teacher to sweep and dust the schoolroom where he has 
already received more dust and germs into his lungs than 
his vitality can withstand. There is little doubt that the 
appallingly high tuberculosis rate prevalent among teach- 
ers is in part due to the practise of requiring janitor 
service of most of our rural teachers. 

The widespread movement toward a higher standard 

of public hygiene vastly increases the work involved 

in caring for the schoolroom. The old 

Better hygienic system of washing the floor once a 

standards require •' . ° . 

additional janitor year, sweeping once or twice a week 

service and dusting hardly at all will no 



368 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

longer serve. Not only an enlightened public sentiment, 
but legislative enactment is insisting that more attention 
be given to insuring cleanliness and hygienic conditions 
under which to carry on the school. Probably not less 
than three or four times the labor formerly expended 
on the care of the school buildings and equipment is 
coming to be demanded under the newer standards. 
This is to say, the rural teacher who keeps his school a 
model of hygienic cleanliness must greatly add to his 
already excessive burden, if he is to continue to serve as 
a janitor. 

The increased size of modern rural-school buildings, 
the addition of basements, cloak-rooms, and toilet rooms 
Modern buildings ^^^^^ further complicates the problem 
demand more care of janitor service. Not only must 
the frequency of sweeping be greatly multiplied, but 
the amount of floor space to be swept has been doubled 
or trebled. Not only has it been decreed that windows 
must be washed more often, but the amount of window 
space now demanded is greater. Not only are we coming 
to insist that blackboards, erasers and chalk troughs shall 
be kept free from dust, but we are employing eight or ten 
times the amount of blackboard space formerly used. 

The time has already come in many rural schools, and 
is rapidly coming in others, when the grounds and out- 
Care required by ^^^^ belongings must also have a large 
school grounds share of attention. The adding of 

trees and shrubs, the planting of school flower and ex- 
perimental gardens, and the installation of play appa- 
ratus must finally lead to the expenditure of a greater 
amount of time in the care of this part of the school 
equipment. True, much of the work to be done on the 
school grounds, gardens and other exterior appointments 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 369 

can and should be accomplished by the pupils under the 
instruction of the teacher. But there will always remain 
portions of the work that can not well be carried out 
without assistance. Especially, should the care of the 
premises required during the vacation time not be left 
to chance or volunteer service. 

The time is therefore ripe for a change. The teacher- 
janitor system belonged to a day of simpler standards, 
fewer responsibilities, and greater necessity for petty 
economies. A generation ago the groceryman proprie- 
tor of the crossroads store might afford to sweep out his 
store at night after his customers were served, but the 
modern business man can employ his time better than in 
thus saving a few cents. The teacher of a modern school 
should no more be found sweeping his schoolroom than 
a merchant should be found sweeping his store, a doctor 
his office, or a minister his church. 

Nor is the question alone whether it is expedient to 
burden the teacher with responsibility for the care of 
., f ffi • t^-^^ school plant. The fact is that 

through teacher- the school plant is not being properly 
janitors taken care of under teacher- janitors. 

Not infrequently expensive apparatus and equipment are 
so neglected or misused as soon to be of little service. A 
recent visit to a rural school showed not less than five 
hundred dollars' worth of charts, wall maps, atlases, dic- 
tionaries, cyclopaedias and other miscellaneous material 
littered here and there about the building. Some of it 
was on dusty shelves, some of it stacked on an old table, 
some of it piled in a corner, and some of it deposited in 
an attic reached only by means of a trap door. Out of 
all this costly supply, almost none was available for use, 
simply because it had not been taken care of. The dis- 



370 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

trict had furnished no special place suitable for storing 
the material, and the teachers had been too busy or tired 
to look after it. Both the district and the school lost 
by economizing on janitor service. 

A number of states have a law making it mandatory 
on school officials to supply each school with a United 
The forgotten States flag. The flag is purchased 

schoolhouse flag and sent to the school, and perhaps a 
flag-staff erected. The flag is used a few times, and 
then laid away on top of a cupboard, or in some desk or 
cloak-room, where it is forgotten. Soon it is soiled and 
covered with dust and unsuitable for use. It has served 
neither the purposes of decoration nor of patriotism, 
and only adds to the accumulation of dead property in the 
school. 

Neglect of the physical equipment of the school af- 
fects not only its efficiency but frequently endangers the 
health of the pupils. An investiga- 

Health endangered ^jqj^ q^ q^iq rural schoolhouse showed 
by neglect , . , . , , , 

that not a smgle wmdow would open 

from the top, and only two windows from the bottom. 
These windows had all been stuck fast with paint five 
years before, and no one had made it his business to see 
that they were loosened. Who knows how many colds, 
sore throats and cases of pneumonia or tuberculosis 
might be traced to this criminal negligence ! Another 
source of grave danger has been discovered in the en- 
closed water jars prescribed by law in certain states to 
replace the open pail. Official inspection of these jars 
during the year 1913 showed many of them wholly unfit 
for use, and far more dangerous than the condemned 
water pail. Not a few of them, when the lid was re- 
moved, gave forth a stench that permeated the entire 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 371 

room. Inquiry revealed the fact that these closed re- 
ceptacles had not been cleaned or sterilized during an 
entire term, and a few of them not since they were 
installed almost a year before! 

A great cry has recently gone up against the un- 
jacketed school stove, and this book has added its voice 

T .^ .to the general condemnation. Yet one 

Janitors responsi- p, 

ble for unjacketed who visits the rural schools, very fre- 
^*°^®^ quently finds a perfectly good stove 

jacket standing in a corner of the room, while the 
uncovered red-hot stove sends its withering blast of 
heat directly out on the children — usually the smaller 
ones — who are seated near it. Is this an argument 
against providing jackets for the stoves? — Not in the 
least. The jacket was removed during the spring to 
gain more space in the room, and the next teacher did 
not know how to replace it, or else the screws were lost. 
In other cases the screws attaching the jacket to the floor 
had come out, and no screw-driver was available to re- 
place them. In a few instances thoughtless teachers 
have removed the jackets because they have found it 
easier to build fires and remove ashes without them. 
The remedy lies in having a janitor employed who will 
see that all school equipment is in serviceable condition. 
In not a few new rural-school buildings where ad- 
justable seats have been provided, the children are found 
Other defects from sitting in seats which do not fit them, 
lack of oversight simply because the teacher — perhaps 
some young girl — either does not understand the mecha- 
nism of the seats or has not taken the time to adjust them. 
In some schools the adjustable seats have been discov- 
ered, after several years of use, all set at the same size, 
although occupied by children of all ages from six to 



372 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

eighteen. The most modern equipment or apparatus will 
mean but little to either pupils or teacher if it is not prop- 
erly cared for and used. In a new rural schoolhouse so 
built that the light might all come from one side, the 
county superintendent on his first visit several months 
after the school opened, found that the seats had been 
so placed that the pupils all sat directly facing the light ! 
The seats had been put in place by a farmer who did 
not understand the principles of lighting schoolrooms, 
and no responsible person was at hand to supervise the 
work. 

Investigation recently made in a rich northern state 
to discover the actual amount of attention being given 

_, . ^ J to the care of the rural-school plant, 

Equipment and . _f 

apparatus out of revealed a grave situation. Fewer 

<^^^^^ than one-half the schools investigated 

had scrubbed their floors within the current school year. 
As large a number had not washed the windows or 
cleaned the interior walls. Almost none had cleaned the 
pupils' desks. Some confessed that the blackboards and 
erasers were never given a thorough cleansing of crayon 
dust. Library books were scattered here and there over 
the room, lying on desk tops, on window-sills, and even 
on the floor. The books were ragged and torn and soiled, 
not from use, but from abuse. Few of the schools had 
mowed the weeds and long grass from the school yard. 
Far more than half had dumped the ashes in a great 
heap in the middle of the grounds. Loose paper, brush, 
lunch boxes and other rubbish littered the yard in many 
cases. The majority of the outbuildings were absolutely 
revolting. In many instances they bore indecent mark- 
ings, some of which were of long standing. They were 
indescribably filthy, the doors were off the hinges, and 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 373 

the appliances disfigured and broken. Inquiry revealed that 
scores of these outbuildings had had no inspection or 
care for months. No provision had been made to have 
such matters attended to, and careless or overworked 
teachers had neglected them. 

The young teacher beginning work in the rural school 
usually knows little about caring for fires and managing a 

„ , , ^ stove or furnace. The result is seen 

Need of expert 

care of heating in buildings too cold to begm school 

apparatus q^ ^jjjig j j^ rooms greatly overheated 

at times; and in stoves and furnaces burned out with 
half the service they are supposed to render. Not in- 
frequently stoves have to be replaced every two or three 
years. Of course a large amount of fuel is wasted by 
such over-firing, to say nothing of the loss of oxygen un- 
necessarily burned from the air to be breathed by the 
school. 

Not all of the schools that employ a janitor, however, 
provide for the smaller details, many of which are among 
the most important matters in the 
Jlve°fulfresponsi- administration of the school. Even in 
bility for physical some of the better consolidated 
equipment schools, the only provision made for 

janitor service is to hire some man, or perhaps boy, to 
build fires, sweep and clear paths of snow. In very 
few instances is a competent person employed with the 
understanding that he is to have charge of the physical 
equipment of the school, and be responsible, under the 
direction of the teacher, for all details connected with it. 
Yet this is precisely what is required before we can put 
rural education on a rational business basis. 

Every public school, large or small, should have some 
custodian responsible to the school officers for the care 



374 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

of the scHool plant. In all matters relating to the work of 
the school, the janitor should be under the general di- 
Employing the rection of the teacher. He should 

janitor ^^ employed on a written contract 

that specifies In detail his duties and responsibilities. He 
should be instructed in hygienic methods of caring for a 
room, in the matter of ventilation and heating, in the 
care of apparatus and equipment, and all else that goes 
to insure the best working conditions of a school. He 
should be a man who believes in cleanliness, and has an 
eye to neatness and order. The position of janitor is 
no place for the aged or decrepit person unable to get 
work elsewhere, nor for one who is lazy, or who has 
a tendency to shirk. 

The janitor's contract, with modifications to meet special 
conditions, should in general provide that the room, equip- 
ment and apparatus be made ready for each day's ses- 
sion and kept at all times at the highest state of efficiency. 
This will include such matters as heat, ventilation, clean- 
liness, repairing, and neatness and order in having all 
material and apparatus in its proper place. 

More specifically, the obligations of the janitor should 
Provisions of cover such points as the follow- 

janitor's contract ing: 

I. That the schoolroom be heated to a temperature of 
approximately seventy degrees at least one-half hour be- 
fore time for opening the session; and, if it is possible 
to have the janitor remain at the building, that this tem- 
perature be maintained throughout the day without care 
or attention from the teacher. This is plainly a part of 
the janitor's duty, and the teacher should be charged only 
with the responsibility of general oversight concern- 
ing it. 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 375 

2. That the schoolroom, cloak-room and halls be care- 
fully swept at the close of each day's session, using some 
of the approved floor preparations effective in preventing 
the rise of dust; that all furniture, window ledges, and 
other parts of the room on which dust can lodge be 
thoroughly dusted each morning before the arrival of the 
pupils with a cloth so treated with a suitable liquid 
preparation intended for this purpose that the dust shall 
be wholly removed and not distributed in the air. 

3. That the floors be scrubbed with soap and water, 
or, if made of finished hard wood, cleaned with a special 
floor preparation every two weeks ; that the desk tops be 
washed in a similar way as frequently as once a month, 
and the interior of the desks kept constantly free from 
rubbish and dust. 

4. That all blackboards and erasers be cleaned and 
dusted daily. 

5. That the windows be washed every four to eight 
weeks, depending on the amount of dust or smoke in 
the neighborhood of the schoolhouse. 

6. That all outhouses be inspected and swept every 
day, kept clean at all times, and free from marks or 
other objectionable defacements ; that all refuse be cov- 
ered daily by dry soil or ashes ; and that a disinfectant 
approved by medical authorities and supplied by the dis- 
trict be applied as often as once each week. In the case 
of interior toilet rooms the same principles are to apply, 
and the disinfectant to be used as frequently as in the 
outdoor closets. 

7. That fresh drinking water be supplied for all ses- 
sions ; and that the drinking utensils be kept scrupulously 
clean. If a pail or covered jar is used, it, together with 
the cups, is to be scalded once each week. If a filter is 



376 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

employed, the rules supplied by the factory governing its 
use are to be followed explicitly in cleansing it. If 
water is used from a well on the premises, a sufficient 
amount must be pumped daily to insure a fresh flow in 
the well, and all refuse kept away from the well. 

8. That lavatories, wash basins, soap dishes, or other 
toilet articles in common use be kept clean at all times ; 
and that, if a common towel is permitted, at least one 
clean towel a day be supplied. 

9. That all school supplies and apparatus, such as 
maps, globes, charts, references works, etc., be brought 
out for use or replaced in accordance with the directions 
of the teacher. 

10. That all minor repairs to apparatus or equipment 
be made by the janitor as needed, so that the school plant 
shall constantly show care and attention and be ready 
for use. 

11. That walks and paths be cleared of snow; that 
the school yard be cared for, mown when necessary, and 
kept free from ashes, waste paper, or any other form of 
rubbish; that fences and gates be kept in repair; and 
that trees, shrubs, or school gardens shall receive such 
care as may be agreed on, both during the school ses- 
sion and vacations. 

12. That the janitor be responsible for the appliances 
furnished him for carrying on his work; that he be 
charged with locking the building each night; and that 
he perform any other reasonable duties asked of him by 
the teacher. 

Besides the service provided for in such an agreement 
with the regular custodian, the school property will need 
certain other care and attention. Not infrequently re- 
painting is neglected until the building presents an un- 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 1^7 

kempt appearance, and has also been permanently dam- 
aged by the weather. Roof-gutters, allowed to rust for 
want of paint, rust through, and the plaster or interior 
decorations are injured. Chimneys or foundations dis- 
integrate for want of repointing, or the roof leaks be- 
cause of a few loose shingles. The building should be 
carefully inspected each year before the opening of the 
school for such needed repairs. The old adage, "A 
stitch in time saves nine," is true nowhere more than in 
the case of public property ; and school boards should 
come to see the necessity for applying to the care of 
the school plant the same business methods employed in 
the management of the farm or shop. Nor should the 
teacher fail to remember that his responsibility includes 
the material as well as the mental interests of the school. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. How much time each day would be required to 
keep your school building in good hygienic condition 
and all accessory work about the school done? Have 
you the time to do this work? Have you the strength? 

2. Do you agree with the statement that a rural 
teacher should not do the janitor work even if paid for 
it? Do you think the dust of sweeping injures you? 

3. How often is your schoolroom floor scrubbed? The 
windows washed? The desks revarnished? The walls 
cleaned? The outhouses looked after? The yard mowed 
and cleaned ? Compare this with the conditions in town 
schools. 

4. What is the condition of the water supply of your 
school? Are you certain that all drinking utensils are 
free from pollution? 

5. What does your school need in the way of book- 



378 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

cases, cupboards, shelves, shades and the like? Have 
you ever asked to have these things supplied? 

6. Are all your desks adjusted to the sizes of your 
pupils ? Are the conditions of lighting satisfactory ? 

7. Does your school yard need attention? Is there 
any understanding about who is to do this work? 

8. What is your judgment of the janitor contract 
proposed? Does your school have all the service this 
contract specifies? Is there any thing unnecessary in 
the contract ? Can you persuade your district to employ 
a janitor under such contract? 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 

The one-room school is a present necessity. It is 

still the largest factor in rural education and will con- 

^, tinue to be so for a number of years 

The one-room •' 

school still a to come. There are now some six 

necessity million boys and girls from the farms 

who will receive all the education they ever get in these 
district schools. That the rural schools of a coming day 
will be consolidated, graded and equipped as well as the 
city school does not immediately affect a majority of 
this generation of rural pupils. In spite of all the 
progress that is being made, it is probable that far more 
than half of those now entering the rural school for the 
first time will never attend any other school than that 
taught in their home district. For a great school system 
can not be made over in a day, no matter how progres- 
sive the constituency. And especially is this true in a 
democracy, where the people themselves directly con- 
trol their own educational affairs, and move only after 
lethargy has been overcome and conviction established. 
We may therefore accept the one-room district school, 
for the present at least, as a part of our educational sys- 
Capable of im- t^^- "^^^ problem then becomes how 

provement to make the thousands of these schools 

as good as they can become. For they are not to be 
accepted as they are, and tolerated at their present low 

379 



38o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

grade of efficiency. Even where consolidation with its 
indisputable advantages is at present impracticable the 
one-room school can be placed on a new and higher 
basis, and its value almost infinitely increased. 

The district school has already felt the stimulus of the 
general uplift in education, and in many regions has made 
decided progress. The consolidated school has set a 
higher standard for all rural schools, and its example of 
efficiency is being emulated in hundreds of schools not 
yet ready to consolidate. Many rural-school patrons 
and officers are now earnestly seeking to afford the coun- 
try children educational facilities equal to those of the 
town. State and county superintendents and rural-school 
supervisors are bending every effort to the same end. 

Probably the greatest need in the campaign for better 
district schools is some standard or criterion of efficiency. 
Need for a standard ^^^t rural-school patrons do not 
of efficiency know how far their school is behind 

the times. They are not aware of the great progress 
recently made in education, nor of the increased demands 
for education made on the individual. They do not 
realize what more progressive communities are doing for 
their schools, nor that it would be possible for them to 
make their own schools as good. There is no intention 
of handicapping the children for want of education, but 
lack of standards renders many rural-school patrons in- 
capable of understanding that they are falling short of 
simple duty to their children. They need to be awakened 
educationally. They need to have placed before them the 
opportunities their children are missing. For it is lack 
of comprehension rather than indifference or miserliness 
that most often explains the present failure to supply 
better schools. 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 381 

In order to be effective this educational campaign must 
be carried on in the most practical and concrete way 
possible; example is far better than precept. A high- 
grade, efficient school, actually organized and run under 
average rural conditions, is objective proof impossible 
of contradiction. Such a school standardizes education 
for its entire vicinity, and is a powerful stimulus to other 
districts. It also defines the direction that improvements 
should take, and thereby renders definite the aim for 
other schools to follow. 

In order thus to standardize rural schools and supply 
some criterion by which they may be measured, the plan 
Standardizing ^^s been adopted in some places of 

rural schools establishing what may be called stand- 

ard schools; or superior schools, basing such recognition 
on certain definite standards of excellence. In Illinois, 
for example, the school grounds and house furnishings, 
heating, library, water supply, outhouses, qualifications 
of the teacher, and the general condition of the school 
are inspected, and if found satisfactory, a diploma is 
granted designating the approved school as a "standard 
school." If the conditions are found to be exceptionally 
satisfactory the school is recognized as a "superior 
school." In either case a plate granted by the state de- 
partment of education and bearing the words "standard 
school," or "superior school," as the case may be, is 
placed above the door of the schoolhouse. The diploma 
and plate are subject to recall if the school fails to main- 
tain this standard. 

It was found in Illinois that not more than one-fifth 

of the country schools when first inspected were up to 

standard. Four-fifths of them were 

The Illinois plan brought up to standard after inspec- 



382 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

tion, by the suggestion and help of the state supervisor 
and the county superintendent. Once the patrons came 
to see the shortcomings of their schools and the means 
by which these could be remedied, they stood ready both 
with their financial support and their personal effort to 
meet the conditions necessary to give their children 
satisfactory school advantages. 

The contagion of the influence of good rural schools 
is seen from the fact that a number of counties in Illi- 
nois now have half of their schools on the standard 
list, and it is predicted by the state superintendent that 
in a few years ninety per cent, of the rural schools of 
certain counties will meet the requirements of "standard 
schools." 

The requirements for classifying a school in this honor 
list are not above what can be attained in a large pro- 
Requirements of a portion of the counties of every state, 
"standard" school and surely not more than must be 
demanded if rural children are to have reasonable oppor- 
tunities for education. In order to be classed as "stand- 
ard schools" the district must supply ample playgrounds 
with a well-graded and well-kept approach to the house. 
If the outdoor closets are used, there must be two 
scrupulously clean and well-kept outhouses widely sepa- 
rated from each other. A convenient fuel house, well 
placed with reference to the school building, and easily 
accessible, must be supplied. The schoolhouse itself must 
be well built, in the best of repair, and in every way 
suitable for occupancy. The foundation must bring the 
building well above the ground and be in good condition. 
The schoolhouse is to be well lighted and have an attrac- 
tive interior, decorated suitably and in good taste. Ade- 
quate blackboards of good material must be supplied, 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 383 

some of them placed low enough to be available for the 
use of the smaller children. 

One of three types of heating devices must be installed : 
either a jacketed stove set in the corner of the room; or 
a combined heater and ventilator placed in one corner; 
or a basement furnace which draws clean air from the 
outside through the furnace, and removes foul air from 
the room. The floor of the room must be in good repair, 
and the entire interior of the building kept hygienically 
clean and tidy at all times. Desks of sizes adapted to the 
different ages of children are to be provided and prop- 
erly placed. The schoolroom furniture must be of suit- 
able type, including a good teacher's desk, bookcase and 
chairs. The library must contain a good collection of 
juvenile books, selected with reference to school work 
as well as for general reading. There must be organized 
and kept in active condition a pupils' reading circle. 
The school must contain a good set of maps, a good 
globe and dictionaries. It is required that the water 
supply for the school shall be plentiful, approximate to 
the building, and all sanitary conditions surrounding its 
use fully approved. 

The school is to be well-organized, the records kept 
in businesslike manner and a definite program of study 
Standards in ^^^ recitation followed. The school 

the school attendance must show reasonable 

regularity and the school year be at least seven months in 
length. The discipline and management of the school 
must be good. The teacher is required to have the equiva- 
lent of at least a high-school education and to receive 
an annual minimum salary of not less than three hundred 
and sixty dollars. The teacher must also be approved 
by the county superintendent as a good or superior 



384 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

teacher, and must read the professional books provided 
in the reading circle, besides attending teachers' insti- 
tutes and other educational meetings. 

It has been found that many schools, having reached 
the grade of "standard schools" and found the advan- 
Standards for tages that flow from this improved 

"superior" schools type of school, desire to go on 
and attain the rank of a "superior school." This 
is possible by meeting certain additional requirements. 
In order to be classified as a "superior school" the school 
grounds must have an area of at least one-half acre, 
be level, covered with good sod and kept in perfect 
condition. The yard must contain a reasonable number 
of trees and shrubs. There must be an approved well 
or cistern, and sanitary drinking appliances provided. 
All outbuildings must be of the best and most approved 
type and kept in perfect condition. 

In the superior school the building must be of ample 
size, attractive in appearance, in perfect repair, and 
must provide separate cloak-rooms 
for boys and girls. The interior walls 
must be properly tinted and kept scrupulously clean. 
The lighting must come from one side, or from one side 
and the rear. The windows must be capable of being 
easily opened and shut and fitted with good shades. The 
floor must be laid with close-fitting lumber and kept in 
hygienic condition. 

The ordinary heating stove will not be tolerated in a 

superior school, the heating requirement being either a 

basement or room furnace which 
School equipment , • . ,, . , ^ ., 

brmgs m the pure air from outside 

and removes the foul air by an adequate ventilating de- 
vice. Blackboards must be fully adequate and adapted 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 385 

to the different sizes of pupils. The desks and all school 
furniture must be of high grade and fully adequate in 
amount for the needs of the school. The school must be 
supplied with a library of at least eighty books, a good 
cyclopedia, three dictionaries, writing and examination 
supplies, pictures for the walls, maps, globes, a set of 
measures and scales, a thermometer and a complete set 
of text-books for the teacher's use. All necessary equip- 
ment for the care of the room, including a floor brush 
and sweeping preparations, are to be provided. The per- 
sonal comfort and cleanliness of the pupils are insured 
by requiring a wash basin, mirror, paper towels and 
other sanitary supplies as a part of the equipment. 
I The superior school must provide for the teaching of 
the elements of agriculture, manual training and the do- 
mestic arts. The teacher is not 
The curriculum ^^j^ ^^ ^^ ^ high-school graduate, 

but must have had training in a normal school. He 
must hold at least a first-grade certificate and be paid 
a salary of not less than four hundred and eighty dollars 
a year. He must also be ranked as a superior teacher 
by the county superintendent. 

The rapid growth of the demand for better schools 

wherever "standard" or "superior" schools have been 

established, whether these terms are 

Hopeful tendencies ^^^^j^^ ^^ ^^^^ indicates a hopeful 

tendency of the times. Where one of these model schools 
is once located in a township, it has usually resulted in 
the establishment of others within a short time. 

One of the strongest factors in compelling improve- 
ment is the recent tendency to require the teaching of 
Factors influencing agriculture in all rural schools. More 
progress than a dozen states have in recent 



386 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

years passed laws making agriculture, and in some cases 
manual training and domestic science as well, a part of 
the school course. The movement is still spreading, and 
it is safe to predict that within a decade very few rural 
schools can be found where instruction in these practi- 
cal subjects is not a regular part of the school work. 
These educational requirements must from the very na- 
ture of the case result in better buildings and equipment. 
For it is impossible to teach agriculture, domestic science 
and manual training without equipment and room for the 
work, and these are not available in the old type of school. 

The effects of the general spirit of progress in rural 
education are seen in the marked improvement in the 
Improvement in school buildings now being erected 
schoolhouses in most parts of the country. Grad- 

ually spreading over North, South, East and West, 
is to be found here and there a new type of 
schoolhouse, not in the least resembling the pitiful lit- 
tle structure it displaces. Many of these new schools are 
a delight to the eye. They are fitted with modern con- 
veniences, and fully adapted to the work of the reorgan- 
ized rural school. Architects are becoming interested in 
the problem of the district schoolhouse, and are giving 
their best ingenuity to devise moderate-priced buildings 
which will combine the maximum of hygienic excellence 
and service for school purposes with pleasing architectural 
effect. 

The one-room building has excellent possibilities. It 
is not necessary that buildings shall be large and imposing 
in order to be beautiful and serviceable. On the other 
hand, not a few of our largest schopl buildings are least 
pleasing in effect and ill adapted to the service required 
of them, while many of the more recent one-room build- 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 387 

ings are almost beyond criticism, both in appearance and 
usefulness. 

The one-room school can be adapted to the require- 
ments of the district nearly as well as the consohdated 
Possibilities of the building to its demands, if the same 
one-room school care and proportionate expenditure 
are devoted to it. There is no excuse to-day for expend- 
ing public funds in the erection of rural buildings of the 
old type. Where this is done there is either ignorance 
or a low standard of education on the part of the patrons 
and taxpayers, and carelessness or betrayal of duty on 
the part of the officials supposed to supervise the erec- 
tion of school buildings. 

Certain well-established principles are now fully un- 
derstood with reference to the construction of school 
Requirements of buildings, and should be applied both 
buildings in the erection of new buildings and 

the reconstruction of old ones. The lighting should 
come from one side only, and not from two, three or four 
directions as in many of the old buildings. It is prefer- 
able that the light should come from the north, but where 
this is impossible, suitable shades must be provided to 
keep all direct sunlight from striking on the desks or 
any portion of the school work. The window space 
should be at least one-fifth as great as the floor space. 
Less than this will provide too small an amount of light 
on dark and cloudy days. 

The floor should always be of hard wood, either maple 
or oak, close-laid to avoid cracks for the lodgment of 
dust. The custom of flooring 
The floor school buildings with cheap pine of 

five-inch width is wasteful extravagance instead of 
economy. For it is sure to shrink so as to leave great 



388 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

cracks, and often slivers or curls at the edges, making 
the floor irregular and leaving lurking places for filth and 
dirt. The hardwood floor cleans more easily, lasts longer 
and is so far ahead in hygienic qualities that the slightly 
higher first-cost is not to be considered. 

The day of the old plaster or wooden blackboard is 
gone. There are now many devices far ahead of either, 
and costing little or no more than the 
old type of board. The most economi- 
cal board to buy is, however, the slate slabs, which are 
practically indestructible, and which never get out of 
repair or show shiny spots where the writing can not be 
read. Old buildings with boards out of repair should 
be supplied with the slate board, since it is easily in- 
stalled in the old building, and can be transferred to the 
new building when the old is replaced. 

The seats and desks should be of the most thoroughly 
approved type. One hundred years ago the educational 
authorities were seriously debating 
School furniture ^^gther a child should have any sup- 
port for the back while sitting in school. We have passed 
beyond this stage, but we still often supply seats that do 
not fit the child, and which therefore render him un- 
comfortable and interfere with his health and develop- 
ment. In every school a reasonable proportion of the 
desks should be adjustable, so that they may be adapted to 
children either larger or smaller than the average. It is 
little less than criminal to sentence a child to sit in a 
seat from which his feet will not touch the floor, or on 
the other hand to crowd him into one so small that it 
does not allow him to sit in a normal position. 

Every one-room schoolhouse should have a good base- 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 389 

ment, well-drained, supplied with plenty of light, floored 
with cement, and kept as clean and dry as the room above 
Schoolroom ^^' ^^ ^^^^ basement should be in- 

heating stalled a furnace for the heating of 

the building. In connection with the heating system 
should be a system of ventilation sufficient for constantly 
supplying the schoolroom with an abundance of air drawn 
from the outside, and heated during its passage through 
the furnace pipes. Direct radiation from a stove set in 
the schoolroom should no longer be permitted in any 
school. In spite of the various methods of jacketing 
the stoves, they are unhygienic, ugly and expensive. 
They take up room needed for better purposes, and the 
best of them have a tendency to freeze those in the far 
corners of the room while they roast those near by. A 
recent test taken with a thermometer in a stove-heated 
room on a cold day showed a temperature of less than 
fifty at the seats occupied by the most distant pupils, and 
of eighty-five at the seats of those nearest by. No wonder 
that some of the pupils were drowsy with the languor of 
heat, while others were distracted from their work by the 
discomfort of the cold. 

The basement must not be looked on as an extrava- 
gance. On the other hand, it is a step in the direction of 
Need of a economy in the supplying of room, 

basement For in the basement can be stored the 

fuel, which now so commonly occupies an ugly shed 
adjacent to the schoolhouse. This shed costs almost as 
much as the basement, and will constantly deteriorate, 
while the basement will not. Further, with the addition 
of manual training to the rural-school course, there must 
be some place provided for the work. What more natural 



390 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

place than the basement? Here also can be provided 
the room for domestic science, now coming to be a part 
of the curriculum of the rural schools in so many states. 

The walls of the schoolroom should be as well finished 
as those of our best homes. They should be tinted a 
Decorating the subdued but pleasing color, and 

schoolroom treated with an oil paint devoid of 

gloss, washable without injuring the effect of the decora- 
tion. In old buildings in which the interiors are dingy 
and forbidding, the freshening process should be thor- 
oughly carried out, and the room made as pleasant and 
home-like as possible. This can be done at slight ex- 
pense; that it is not more often done is largely because 
bf the indifference of those having such matters in charge, 
rather than from motives of economy. The schoolroom 
should be supplied with a few good pictures suited to the 
age of the pupils. These should be worthy copies of the 
great masterpieces, and they should be well framed, and 
suitably hung. The custom of decorating the walls of the 
schoolroom with cheap posters and pages from the ad- 
vertising sections of magazines, however well meant, 
should be severely condemned. There is a great inspira- 
tion in having constantly before one the suggestion com- 
ing from a fine picture; on the other hand, the gaudy 
worthless daubs so often seen in schoolrooms are of no 
help, and even serve to lower the tastes and standards. 
Excellent pictures of historic places and events; of 
famous men — Washington, Jefferson, Longfellow, Lin- 
coln — can be had for small sums. 

The furniture of the school should be of a good sub- 
stantial type, adapted to the use to which it is to be put. 
Care of school ^11 that is broken or marred should 

belongings be mended or replaced. The lessons 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 391 

that sink into the mind of a child from seeing broken 
and scarred furnishings in the schoolroom unconsciously 
come to shape his standards for the furnishings of the 
home. The furnishings of the school require the best of 
care, and should at least once each year be subjected to a 
thorough cleaning and freshening process, with a free 
use of varnish or other means of making them new and 
attractive in appearance. This should be done in a work- 
manlike manner, and may well be a part of the course 
in manual training for the boys of the school. 

Every rural school should have a library adequate to 
the uses of the school. One of the greatest gifts that 

an education can put into the posses- 

The school library , -1 1 -i j • 1 r j 

sion of the child is a love for good 

reading, and this can not be obtained without the right 
kind of reading material with which to develop the taste. 
Yet there are hundreds of district schools scattered 
throughout the country in which not a book is to be 
found except the text-books in the pupils' desks. This 
is a fatal weakness in the equipment of any school, and 
one that teachers and officers should set about to remedy 
at once. A minimum of one hundred good books care- 
fully selected to meet the needs of the pupils should be 
the lowest number thought of as meeting the requirements 
of even a small school; nor should this number include 
the sets of supplementary readers, which are a necessary 
part of the equipment of every school. And, even with 
this foundation as a beginning of a school and neighbor- 
hood library, an annual appropriation out of the funds 
of the district of not less than twenty-five dollars, and 
as much more as the finances of the district will bear, 
should be devoted to the purchase of new books and 
magazines. One of the poorest places to practise a fool- 



392 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ish economy is in the school Hbrary. That books are 
sometimes lost or destroyed, is true ; but this is no argu- 
ment against supplying a library. The fault is rather 
one of management, and not a fault that necessarily in- 
heres in the fact of supplying a school library. Let the 
district furnish a well-constructed case, fitted with good 
locks, and then make the teacher responsible for the 
safety of the books. The loss from carelessness or ma- 
licious mischief will then be no bar. 

The sanitary arrangements of the one-room school 
should of course not be less perfect than those of the town 
Hygienic ^^ consolidated school. The old style 

conditions of water pail and drinking cup should 

not for a moment be tolerated in any district school. In 
fact no system by which common drinking cups are used 
can longer be defended or condoned. The danger to 
health and life from such needless exposure is now per- 
fectly well understood by all intelligent people, and there 
is no excuse for the negligence, well-nigh criminal, which 
in many districts still permits this menace to continue. 
It is gratifying to know that legislation is beginning to 
forbid the water-pail system of drinking in the schools ; 
Indiana, for example, having replaced pails with closed 
stone jars supplied with a faucet. A still better device is 
the flowing fountain operated by compressed air, without 
the necessity of connection with a water-pressure system. 
Every dealer can direct school authorities to a number of 
satisfactory devices of this nature and the cost is not 
great. 

A still better plan is to install a water-pressure system 

consisting of a three-hundred-gallon tank stored in the 

basement and supplied by means of a 

The water supply ^^^^ force-pump from the school 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 



393 




This force pump now makes the drinking fountain available without an 
expensive plumbing system. The children can easily do most of the pump- 
ing. 



394 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

well. This system makes possible indoor toilets, and 
flowing water for a lavatory and other uses in the build- 
ing. Such a water system costs from one hundred to 
two hundred and fifty dollars, exclusive of the well, and 
should be made a part of the equipment of every modern 
rural school. 

The roller towel should be rigidly banished from the 
school, and only paper towels used. The expense is 
Necessary hardly greater than with the old sys- 

equipment tem, and has the advantage of cleanli- 

ness and freedom from the danger of disease. A good- 
sized mirror should be provided, and every incentive used 
to encourage rural children to take pride in their personal 
neatness and appearance. The common comb and hair- 
brush should be tabooed, and the children led to provide 
their own combs. If such features as these seem strange 
in connection with a one-room country school, it should 
be remembered that small matters bearing on the habits 
of daily life are often the most important part of educa- 
tion. 

Outside closets, where such must be maintained, should 
be entirely separate for the two sexes and never, as is 
now commonly the case, built under the one roof or in 
close proximity. These buildings should be neat and in 
perfect repair. They may be screened by clumps of 
shrubbery and climbing vines, and must be kept scrupu- 
lously clean and free from every suggestion of question- 
able nature. Not to carry out this simple demand, so 
reasonable and clear in its necessity that none can ques- 
tion it, is to confess to an indifference toward childhood 
purity and morality that ill matches our interest in other 
lines of educational progress. 

The surroundings of the one-room school can be made 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 395 

as attractive as those of the larger school. It costs but 
little to level and grade the grounds where a farming 
Attractive community renders the use of teams, 

surroundings plows and scrapers available, practi- 

cally without expense if the whole neighborhood is inter- 
ested in the project. Shrubs can usually be obtained from 
the oversupply of the community, or they will cost but a 
few dollars if purchased from a nursery. Trees are avail- 
able for the digging in almost every school district, or can 
easily be found along adjacent streams. Nor should the 
setting of the shrubs and trees be done after a haphazard 
fashion, but according to an artistic plan which can easily 
be obtained from the nearest agricultural college. The 
actual planting should not be left to the exercises of an 
ofificial arbor day, nor entrusted to children who do not 
understand the setting of plants and trees. That the 
school should have a part in the planting is true, but an 
expert gardener should always be on hand to oversee 
and direct the work. 

The spectacle of dead trees cumbering the grounds of 
many rural schools as they do throughout the rural com- 
School yard, trees munities is not a highly inspiring 
and shrubs sight, nor does it encourage children 

in setting and caring for decorative vegetation at home. 
With the trees and shrubbery well set, the next problem 
is to insure proper care and protection until growth is 
assured. Mulching should be applied, and stakes driven 
to protect against accidental injury from the pupils in 
their play. If the season is dry, water should be freely 
applied from the school well. Grass and weeds must be 
kept down, and not allowed to smother the shrubs. The 
grounds should be as well cared for, even during the 
vacation, as the lawn of any well-kept home. Though 



396 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

this will demand some trouble, and possibly a slight 
expense, the incentives coming from beautiful and care- 
fully trimmed school grounds will far more than com- 
pensate for the few dollars involved. 

The school garden is highly desirable in connection 
with the one-room school, as it is with the consolidated 
school. It is, however, a hard prob- 
oo gar ens j^^ j^ many parts of the country, es- 

pecially in the North where the planting season opens 
late, and the schools close before the vegetation matures. 
After the schools are out the garden is allowed to go to 
waste, and the best results are lost. Yet many schools 
have succeeded admirably in maintaining excellent gar- 
dens. At least the school can encourage the planting and 
care of home gardens under the instruction of the teacher 
as a part of the work in agriculture. 

The district school, in common with all other schools, 
must give more attention to the playground. It is not 
enough to provide a sufficient amount 
The playground ^^ ground, and do nothing more for 
the recreation side of school and community life. There 
should be a supply of simple apparatus — various forms 
of swings, teeter boards, a sand pile, horizontal bars and 
other devices such as are found on all well-organized 
playgrounds. These can be had at a nominal cost, and 
can for the most part be made in the manual-training 
shop of the school, or in case manual training is not 
taught, a neighborhood "bee" devoted to the construc- 
tion of play apparatus would easily provide all that is 
needed. The chief reason why we do not have such 
equipment in more of our schools than we do is because 
the need of it has never been realized. This fact sug- 
gests an opportunity to the teacher. 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 397 

The one-room school can be of great service to its 
community as a neighborhood social center. The school- 
The school as house should be the common meeting 

a social center place for the discussion of all ques- 

tions of interest to the community ; educational programs, 
agricultural meetings, entertainments, lectures and con- 
ferences of various sorts all naturally belong to the school 
center. But the old type of building is not suited to 
such uses. The assembly rooms of the new buildings 
we are erecting should have this function of the school 
in mind, and be generous in size. In many of the newer 
buildings, the seats are fastened to slats instead of to the 
floor, and can be pushed aside, or to the walls when the 
room is needed for a general meeting. Folding chairs 
are then provided, and stored in the basement when not 
in use. 

If it is said that the standards here proposed for the 
one-room school are far in advance of those that now 
, , prevail, and that the new type of 

both reasonable school will cost the district more 
and feasible money than the old, this will all be 

conceded. But so does the farmer spend more for his 
m.achinery than he did a generation ago ; his automobile 
costs more than he paid for the buggy that preceded it ; 
and he spends more on his barns than he was formerly ac- 
customed to invest in his straw sheds. Literally thou- 
sands of country schoolhouses are to-day In use that cost 
less than four hundred dollars, and which do not have ten 
dollars a year spent on their up-keep. The modern one- 
room schoolhouse should not cost less than three thou- 
sand dollars without the equipment. In most rural com- 
munities this type of building could be had without hard- 
ship in the way of taxation, and without bringing the 



398 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

school tax up to the rate usually paid in towns and cities. 
It is not poverty, but indifference and lack of informa- 
tion that stand in the way. 

That the better type of one-room school is entirely 
feasible in the average community is proved by the ex- 
cellent schools now in operation here and there in many 
states. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. Do you think that by a concerted effort on the part 
of all the teachers and the superintendent of your county 
many one-room schools might be merged in consolidated 
schools? Would you be willing to help? 

2. Have your district schools on the whole been show- 
ing any marked improvement recently? If not, how 
does it happen that they have not caught the rising spirit 
of progress? 

3. Do you know of any particularly good district 
school that has served to stimulate other schools to im- 
provement ? 

4. How do you account for the rather general indif- 
ference to education in country districts? Are the peo- 
ple not fully as intelligent naturally as those in towns? 

5. What do you think of the Illinois plan of recog- 
nizing "standard" and "superior" schools? Could such 
a plan be introduced in your locality? 

6. Even without official action recognizing your 
school, can you not bring your school up to the require- 
ments specified? Do you think they are higher than all 
rural schools should meet? 

7. What kind of pictures have you in your school? 
How are the walls tinted? Does your room really look 
pleasant and attractive? 



THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL 399 

8. Do you believe there is a moral value in attrac- 
tive surroundings? Do you believe that an important 
part of education is to develop the tastes and standards 
that will render the individual dissatisfied with ugliness, 
squalor and dirt? Are your school surroundings such 
as to develop right tastes and standards? 



CHAPTER XXV 

SCHOOL HYGIENE 

Conservation of health should be the first responsibil- 
ity of the school. The relation of a sound and healthy 
body to success and happiness is so vital that the matter 
of hygiene constitutes one of the most important prob- 
lems of education. The child goes to school during the 
period of life most formative physically as well as 
mentally. The effects of overstrained eyes, cramped or 
unnatural postures, impure air, or other harmful influ- 
ences are therefore far more serious for the growing 
child than for the adult. On the other hand, right care 
and use of the body, and correct habits in youth will yield 
large returns throughout life. 

The last few years have seen an unprecedented inter- 
est in hygiene and public health. Every magazine and 
New interest in newspaper presents articles on the 
public health question ; clubs and societies are 

discussing the laws of health in their meetings; medi- 
cal societies are issuing and distributing tracts ; legis- 
latures are seeking to incorporate hygienic meas- 
ures into the management of our schools. Nor is 
this all a fad, the whim of a passing moment, to be for- 
gotten when a more interesting topic arises. As a peo- 
ple we are awakening to the fact that it is possible to 
live longer, more happily and more successfully by obey- 
ing certain simple and easily understood laws governing 

400 



SCHOOL HYGIENE 401 

the functioning of our bodies. We are discovering that 
we can save much economic loss, sickness, sorrow and 
premature death by a Httle care and foresight with ref- 
erence to our health. And nothing can be more import- 
ant than this. 

Recognition of the importance of physical health in any 
scheme of education led the city of Boston in the year 
Medical inspection 1894 to provide for the medical in- 
of schools spection of all school children. This 

seems to have been the beginning of the movement in this 
country. Medical inspection has now spread until it ob- 
tains in most of the important cities of the United States. 
A number of different states have also passed medical 
inspection laws applying to all schools, both urban and 
rural. Still other states have laws providing for the test- 
ing of the eyes and ears of all school children. In many 
places the teachers are required to have a knowledge of 
the eye and the ear, and of contagious diseases. There 
can be no doubt that our future educational policy will in- 
clude responsibility for the health and physical well- 
being of the child while he is in school, and such train- 
ing in hygiene that he will be able to maintain a higher 
standard of physical efficiency outside the school than is 
now the rule. 

It is especially necessary that the rural school shall set 
high its standard of hygiene. For the rural community 
Rural school to set ^^ lacking in boards of health, and the 
health standard proximity to doctors, dentists and 
oculists that characterize the city. Violations of the 
rules of public health in rural neighborhoods may result 
in an outbreak of disease before the offenders are discov- 
ered and checked. Slight ailments are not likely to re- 
ceive medical attention until they have become serious. 



'402 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Decayed teeth and diseased throats are not subjected to 
early treatment. Defective hearing and vision do not re- 
ceive attention from the speciahst, for none is at hand. 
The new movement for better hygiene has not yet reached 
the country as fully as it has the city. 

One of the greatest opportunities of the rural school is 
to hasten this movement. The rural record for disease 
Low hygienic ^^^ ^^^^ °^ mortality is out of all pro- 

standards portion to sickness and death in the 

city, when we take into account the more favorable 
natural conditions of country life. The dreadful toll 
taken by the contagious diseases has already been re- 
ferred to in an earlier chapter. Doctor Hoag found in a 
recent study of the health conditions in the Minnesota 
rural schools that fully eighty per cent, of the children 
yet in the elementary school regularly drink coffee. Two 
out of every five suffer almost constantly from toothache, 
accepting it as inevitable and hence to be endured instead 
of cured. More than one-fifth of the pupils have fre- 
quent headaches, naively taking them for granted on the 
supposition that "everybody has headaches." From 
twelve to fourteen per cent, suffer from earache, and four 
per cent, have discharging ears, adenoids being responsi- 
ble for most of this trouble, which usually ends in some 
form of deafness. From four to five per cent, of the 
children are sufficiently hard of hearing that they do not 
fully understand what is going on, and hence are put 
down as stupid when they are not. 

The rural school therefore owes it to its pupils and 
patrons to do two things: (i) to make the hygienic 
Duty of school conditions in the school itself such 

toward health that no harm can come to the health 

or physical well-being of the pupils, seeking rather to 



SCHOOL HYGIENE 403 

remedy such physical defects as are present ; and (2) so 
to instruct in the laws of hygiene that the physical habits 
and standards outside the school may result in the high- 
est efficiency at home. 

Fundamental to all other questions of hygiene is an 
abundant supply of pure fresh air in the schoolroom. 
The air of the Rebreathed air is harmful in two dis- 

schoolroom tinct ways: (i) the supply of oxygen 

is depleted, and all the vital processes of the body run 
low from its lack; (2) the rebreathed air contains many 
more germs than pure air, and many of these are harm- 
ful, even when they do not produce specific diseases. 
Careful tests show that the air of a class-room that has 
been occupied by a class for an hour has more than 
double the number of germs contained by the air in the 
same room before it had been occupied. 

One of the best illustrations of the effects of plenty 
of oxygen on brain power and general physical efficiency 
Effects of open- ^^ ^^^" '^^ ^^^ results of "open-air" 
air schools schools developed in recent years in 

several of our larger cities, and still more common in 
England and Germany.' These schools were started first 
for tubercular children, and those who were laggards in 
their classes, and unable to keep up with their work. The 
open-air schoolrooms have one or more sides exposed to 
the air, and in some instances, especially in England, the 
school is held wholly out-of-doors. It has been found 
in practically every instance in such schools in England, 
Germany and the United States that the physical health 
and vitality of the children steadily improved. In a 
large proportion of the cases, the disease was fully cured, 
and in nearly all, the weight rapidly increased. In every 

* See Ayres, Open Air Schools. 



404 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

instance, marked improvement has also been shown in 

mental ability, and in not a few cases the laggards have 

caught up with their regular grades and gone on doing 

full work. If plenty of fresh air will work such wonders 

for diseased or dull children, why is it not equally good 

for all children! 

The recognition of the importance of pure air in the 

schoolroom has resulted in regulations in various states 

that the schoolroom must contain a 
Air space required , . . . - . - 

^ certam mmimum of air space for 

each pupil in the room. For example, the health author- 
ities of Indiana close all schools that do not have at least 
two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air space for each 
pupil. The board is then obliged to enlarge the room or 
make some provision for a part of the pupils in another 
school. Some such provision should obtain in every 
state. 

But even with two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air 
to each person, the air must be frequently changed in 
order to be at its best. Not alone pure air, but a moving 
current is necessary in order that the entire body may be 
bathed in changing air. For recent experiments have 
conclusively shown that the effects of stagnant air on 
the body are almost if not quite as injurious as if taken 
into the lungs. Every schoolroom should therefore be 
equipped with some effective ventilating device to con- 
nect with the heating apparatus. But even with the best 
of the devices available for the small school, the doors 
and windows should be thrown open for at least five min- 
utes at each intermission, and the room thoroughly aired. 
Where there is no ventilating device, a number of win- 
dows should constantly be open. 

The lack of pure air to breathe is probably the worst 



SCHOOL HYGIENE 405 

hygienic fault both in our homes and in our schools. This 
is all the more to be deplored, since air is free, and can 
Ventilation and ^^ ^^^ ^" abundance at the expense 
disease of a little care. Yet in how many- 

homes and schools is the air carefully excluded, especially 
during the winter months ! No wonder that we reap a crop 
of pneumonia, bronchitis and colds in the late winter and 
early spring. It is but the logical outcome of lowered 
vitality, and the presence of disease germs ready to take 
advantage of the weakened powers of resistance. 

The temperature of the air taken into the lungs and 
immersing the body is almost as important a factor 
Effects of ^s ^^s purity. Scientists have found 

temperature by careful experiments that even 

air which has been rebreathed until it contains sev- 
eral hundred per cent, more carbon dioxide than it should 
contain does not occasion serious suffering or immediate 
inconvenience, providing that it is kept cool and in con- 
stant circulation. 

To test the effects of ventilation and temperature on 
the body, Doctor Leonard Hill constructed a small ex- 
perimental chamber, making it air-tight, and providing 
it with a window through which he could observe the 
occupants. The chamber was fitted with both heating 
and cooling devices, and with electric fans. Seven 
students were shut in this chamber, for about half an 
hour, thus being compelled to rebreathe the air many 
times over. They were kept until the carbon dioxide, 
which should constitute less than five-hundredths of one 
per cent, of the air, had risen to four per cent, and the 
oxygen, which should make up about twenty per cent., 
had fallen to sixteen per cent. The temperature was also 



4o6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

increased to nearly eighty-five degrees. The students 
soon experienced great discomfort and difficulty in 
breathing; their faces became flushed and covered with 
perspiration. At this stage the electric fans were set in 
motion, and immediate relief was experienced. They 
were still breathing the same old stale air, but when it 
was driven by the fans there was a constant change from 
the air next the skin, which had risen to about ninety- 
eight degrees, to the cooler air of the chamber. When 
the temperature of the air was reduced, still further re- 
lief was felt. This experiment does not mean that there 
are no bad effects from living in rebreathed air ; it rather 
teaches that perfect ventilation can not be had without 
constant currents of air strong enough to supply chang- 
ing air to the surface of the body as well as to the lungs. 
It also suggests the necessity of guarding against the 
overheating of rooms. 

A temperature higher than seventy degrees has a tend- 
ency to interfere with the vital processes of the body, and 
leave the mind dull and inactive. It is probable that 
those who are well and strong can easily become accus- 
tomed to a temperature even as low as sixty degrees, and 
certainly as low as sixty-five degrees, and be all the better 
for it. One can form the habit of requiring an over- 
heated temperature in order to feel comfortable, or of 
being at ease in a relatively low temperature. Every 
schoolroom should be provided with a thermometer, and 
the temperature carefully guarded. A schoolroom siz- 
zling at eighty or ninety degrees with the thermometer 
ten below zero out-of-doors is a positive menace to 
health, if not even to the life of pupils. 

Cleanliness is a cardinal virtue in the school. Filth and 



SCHOOL HYGIENE 407 

dust are the home of many harmful germs. Therefore 
the schoolroom, the furniture and the books should be 
Hygiene and ^^P^ perfectly clean. Dust should not 

cleanliness be allowed to accumulate on the floor, 

the window ledges, or about the desks. Millions of 
germs slightly heavier than the air in which they float, 
settle down in the dust and when it is later disturbed, 
again float in the air, adding to the already too-abundant 
supply. In many schoolrooms the presence of dust can 
be detected in the air after a class has passed, or the 
school has marched in or out. This condition always 
means carelessness in the cleaning of the room, and 
brands it hygienically unfit for use. 

The remedy is, of course, to remove the dust daily — 
actually to remove it with a damp cloth, and not simply 
stir it up in the room by swishing it 
^ off the desks with a dry cloth or a 

feather duster as is so often done. Far better leave the 
dust quietly reposing on the furniture than to drive it off 
into the air to be breathed by the pupils. The floor 
should be thoroughly swept every evening after school, 
and scrubbed every two weeks during the term. The 
desks should be revarnished once a year, and should be 
kept clean at all times. In short, the schoolroom should 
receive as good care as any well-ordered home. It 
should not only itself be a healthful place in which to live 
and work, but should stand as a model of cleanliness and 
good housekeeping. 

One of the most difficult problems of hygiene in the 

rural school is that connected with the water supply. In 

thousands of rural schools the water 

has to be carried a considerable dis- 



4o8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

tance in pails from some convenient farmhouse. Of 
course with this scanty supply there is no opportunity to 
wash hands before eating the noonday lunch or after a 
game. There is barely enough for drinking purposes, 
and the supply is allowed to stand all day in an open 
pail, exposed to the dust and dirt of the room, and ab- 
sorbing the poisons of the air. Both pail and cup are 
infrequently washed, and become coated with grime. 
The cup is a veritable cemetery of cells and saliva de- 
posits from many lips, and the distributer of vari- 
ous kinds of disease germs. 

It is true that this dangerous and filthy method of 
supplying drinking water is absolutely forbidden in many 

^ . , . ., places ; it should be tolerated in none. 

Drinking utensils . , , .1^1 

A covered stone or metal tank sup- 
plied with a faucet can be had for a dollar or two, and 
individual drinking cups may be supplied at a small ex- 
pense. Even this equipment will not keep itself clean, 
however, but will need constant care and attention. In 
fact such an outfit as this is itself but a makeshift, and 
should at the earliest possible moment give way to the 
flowing drinking fountain, several excellent types of 
which are intended for use in buildings lacking city water 
connections. No common drinking arrangement is safe 
that does not provide some means for drinking from a 
flowing stream, without putting the mouth to metal that 
other lips have touched. Any lower standard than this 
indicates either a woeful ignorance of the simplest laws of 
hygiene, or an inexcusable indifference in the exposure 
of children to the dangers of contagious diseases. 

Attention to a few simple rules for the lighting of the 
schoolroom and the protection of the eyes would save a 




Getting a drink. The method that prevails in three-fourths of the district 
schools in the United States to-dav 




The modern wav 



SCHOOL HYGIENE 409 

great deal of defective vision. Medical tests of the eyes 
of school children have shown an appalling proportion 
The hygiene of pupils with faulty vision. And 

of lighting there is grave reason to believe that 

the school serves on the whole to increase these defects 
instead of remedying them. Many of our school build- 
ings have windows on three, or even on four, sides. In 
many thousands of schools the windows, even on the 
sides exposed to the sun, are not provided with shades. 
And even where shades are not lacking, they are not 
always adjusted so that the direct sunlight is shut from 
the desk tops or from the books. 

The newer schoolhouses are being planned with care- 
ful attention to lighting effects. In the older buildings 
Attention to com- ^^^ teacher should devise means by 
monplace things which the eyes of pupils may be pro- 
tected as fully as possible. The absence of shades usually 
indicates carelessness and indifference rather than stingi- 
ness on the part of the district. Blackboards should 
never be used at such an angle that they reflect the light 
into the eyes of the pupils, nor when they have become 
cracked and shiny so that the writing is not plain. These 
are all simple and commonplace matters, familiar to teach- 
ers and school officers, yet it is from the neglect of just 
these hackneyed points that many of the physical ills that 
afflict childhood, and much of the mental dulness of not 
a few of the laggards in our rural schools, come. There 
is no phase of rural education that needs attention more 
than the hygiene of the school. 

As an example of an enlightened attitude toward the 
hygiene of the school, the following regulations recently 
adopted by the Indiana state board of health, and having 
the full force of law in that state, are given : 



410 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Site and Grounds. — All schoolhouse sites shall be easy 
of approach from a street or public road. A slight eleva- 
tion is preferred and where the ground is low it must be 
properly drained to insure proper playgrounds and free- 
dom from dampness. The site shall be not less than five 
hundred feet from any swampy ground, body of stag- 
nant water, cemetery, slaughter house, fertilizer reduc- 
tion plant, any business or manufacturing establishment 
which engenders noxious odors or vapors or that pollutes 
the surrounding atmosphere by smoke or dust, or any 
place of industry where undue noises prevail. The site 
shall consist of not less than one acre. School play- 
grounds shall have an area of not less than thirty square 
feet for each pupil and shall be well drained and graveled 
and free from depressions. Ground not occupied by 
buildings shall be laid out in lawn and garden with shrubs 
and shade trees. 

School Building. — No school building shall be more 
than two stories above the basement. Doors shall open 
outward, and double doors or storm doors shall be with- 
out fastenings except spring hinges. All doors shall be 
unlocked while school is in session. No class room shall 
exceed twenty-four feet in width, ceiling not less than 
twelve nor more than fourteen feet in height. Main cor- 
ridors shall be not less than eleven feet in width, and in 
buildings of more than eight rooms not less than thirteen 
feet in width. All floors of toilet rooms, basement rooms 
not used for class purposes and all inclosures for plumb- 
ing fixtures and steam fittings shall be of nonabsorbent 
waterproof material. Wherever possible, floors of lab- 
oratories, domestic-science rooms and corridors shall be 
of like material. Mattings or other floor coverings shall 
not be permitted, except in superintendent's or principal's 



SCHOOL HYGIENE 411 

office, rest room and teachers' rooms. All inside wood 
finishing shall be small as possible and free from un- 
necessary dust catchers. 

Lighting. — No window shall have more than four 
lights, and the tops of windows shall be square. Prism 
glass shall be used to diffuse light when necessary. 
Where the light in any schoolroom is from the north, the 
proportion of glass to floor area shall be not less than 
one to five. 

Heating and Ventilating. — Heating and ventilating sys- 
tems shall take fresh air from outside the school build- 
ings, evenly diffuse the same throughout each schoolroom 
during school session and withdraw foul air from the 
room at a minimum rate of eighteen hundred cubic feet 
an hour for each two hundred and twenty-five cubic feet 
of schoolroom space, regardless of outside atmospheric 
conditions. The rules provide a system of testing the 
efficiency of ventilating systems. Trustees, school boards, 
board of school commissioners, county, city or state su- 
perintendents or ten or more patrons of a school may re- 
quest the board to make such tests. 

Stoves and Heaters. — Where stoves or furnaces are 
used provision is made for fresh air to be taken from out- 
side the building and the installation of a foul air flue. 
The stove or furnace shall be of sufficient size to heat the 
room to seventy degrees in zero weather. Provision also 
is made for safety in the installation of the furnace. The 
jacket shall be of heavy galvanized iron, black iron or 
other equally durable material, and shall be lined with 
asbestos. The rules contain a table showing the size of 
chimneys, diameter of vent pipes, the free area of foul air 
vent, area of free air intake, area of smoke flue, etc. 

Where ventilating systems are used, fresh air shall be 



412 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

taken from outside the building through windows into a 
room in the basement constructed for that purpose, with 
tight fitting door, and impervious, smooth walls, floor and 
ceiling, known as the fresh air room. No basement air 
shall be permitted to enter the air supply. No fresh air 
opening or foul air vent in connection with any system 
of ventilation shall be closed at any time when school is 
in session. 

Provision is made for the location, ventilation and 
heating of cloak-rooms and wardrobes. Where cloak- 
rooms are not provided, steel lockers may be placed in 
corridors, provided they do not become obstructions. 

Windows in all schoolrooms, whenever practical, shall 
be opened at recess and before the opening of afternoon 
school sessions. 

Water Supply. — Open or dug wells or springs shall not 
be used. No well shall be within one hundred feet of 
any privy, cesspool or other known source of contamina- 
tion. Tests of the water supply are provided for. 

Sanitary drinking fountains shall be installed. 

Lavatories. — Enameled iron sinks or wash basins shall 
be installed. Soap and sanitary paper towels shall be 
used. Common or roller towels are prohibited. Sewer 
drainage is provided for. 

Water Closets. — Where a sewer system or pressure 
water supply is available water closets to the number of 
one seat for each fifteen females or fractional part 
thereof, one seat for each twenty-five males or fractional 
part thereof and one urinal for each fifteen males shall 
be installed. All such equipment shall be of sanitary con- 
struction. Ventilating openings are provided for. Toi- 
lets shall be clearly marked "Boys' Toilet" and "Girls* 
Toilet." 



SCHOOL HYGIENE 413 

Where sewer system or water supply is not available 
either an indoor crematory, sanitary closet system or out- 
door sanitary closet system shall be provided. So-called 
dry closets shall not hereafter be used. All outdoor clos- 
ets shall be effectually screened and protected against 
flies. 

Seating. — Class and study rooms shall have aisles on 
all wall sides. Center aisles range from seventeen to 
twenty inches in width and wall aisles from twenty-eight 
to thirty-six inches in width. 

General provisions. — Furnace, boiler and fuel rooms 
shall be built of fireproof construction. No closet for 
storage shall be placed under a stairway. All doors must 
be unlockable within. Air must be humidified before 
entering the rooms. Vacuum cleaning is preferred. Dry 
sweeping or dusting is prohibited, and there shall be no 
sweeping while school is in session. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. Has the recent general interest in health and hy- 
giene reached your school and community? 

2. Do you find it possible to ventilate properly your 
schoolroom? Do you give the matter careful attention? 
Do you notice dust in the air after the school has been 
marching or passing about the room? If so, what does 
this indicate? 

3. What are the conditions about your school that 
need immediate remedy for the sake of the health of the 
children and yourself? 

4. Compute the space in your room and see whether 
there is as much as two hundred and fifty cubic feet to 
the occupant. Also determine whether your room has 
window space equal to one-fifth the floor space. 



414 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

5. Do you allow slates to be used? If so, how are 
they cleaned? 

6. Has your school a good well? If so, has it a 
force pump. If it has the latter, an apparatus can easily 
be installed which will give you as good a bubbling foun- 
tain as in a city system. Could this not be installed? 

7. Is the dusting of your schoolroom properly done, 
that is, is the dust taken up by dampened dusting cloths ? 

8. Are the desks misfits for any of the children, so 
that curvature of the spine is likely to result? Are the 
seats properly placed with reference to the desk tops, 
so that they do not require the pupil to sit on the edge 
of the seat or lean forward in order to reach the desk? 



CHAPTER XXVI 

PERSONAL HYGIENE 

Although the hygiene of the school and its surround- 
ings may be made perfect, this is not enough. For hygi- 
Personal nature ^"^ must, after all, finally become a 
of hygiene matter of personal standards, the de- 

mand of the individual for the conditions that favor 
health and longevity. Not until each pupil not only 
knows the laws of hygiene, but recognizes and desires 
their benefits in his own life, has the school fully accom- 
plished its purpose in physical education. 

In spite of the powerful effects of good examples, 
there are many pupils who will go from a well-ventilated 
schoolroom to sleep in a close and stuffy bedroom, or 
from a school where the temperature is moderate to sit 
in an overheated room, without thinking of its ill effects. 
Thousands of children in our schools learn to recite les- 
sons on the care of the teeth, and yet never form the 
habit of the daily cleansing of the mouth. They study 
the effects of coffee on the growing organism, and yet 
freely drink it at their meals. They are fluent in de- 
scribing the results of using tobacco, and still use it. 
They can pass perfect examinations on the rules for 
Theory versus bathing, but violate most of these 

practise rules. They understand the danger 

of the common drinking cup and the roller towel, but 
constantly dare the risks. They are aware of the danger 

41S 



4i6 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

of overstraining the eyes, yet they will sit facing a strong 
light while they read. 

In some degree this discrepancy between theory and 
practise must be expected, for it is a part of human na- 
ture. None of us lives as well as he knows how to live ; 
it is always easier to preach than to practise. Yet this 
does not affect the truth of the principles involved. The 
school must not only teach its pupils the laws of hygiene, 
and provide hygienic conditions under which to do their 
work, it must also so inculcate these lessons that they are 
practised in the daily lives of its youth. 

Children should never be so taught as to have their 
minds centered on sickness and disease, or their fears of 
Health the right death aroused; many nervous and 
of the child sensitive children suffer from the 

dread of these things as it is. On the other hand, the 
child should be led to expect and demand health and 
happiness. The pathetic fatalism that makes many chil- 
dren accept toothache, earache, headaches, colds and the 
like as part of the inescapable woes of childhood, should 
be removed. These pains should be understood as the 
penalty for the violation of certain physical laws, which 
it is a part of their education to discover and apply. 
They should come to demand health, instead of resign- 
edly accepting suffering; and to have a pride in physical 
vigor and well-being, instead of in fortitude under pain. 
They should come to look on premature death and the 
ravages of contagious diseases, such as typhoid fever or 
tuberculosis, not as the visitation of an inscrutable Provi- 
dence, but as a catastrophe resulting from our own blind- 
ness or unwillingness to follow physical laws that are 
perfectly well known. Approached from this point of 
view there is no danger of making a child morbid by 



PERSONAL HYGIENE i^i; 

teaching him concerning disease; instruction makes for 
his peace of mind rather by showing him how to avoid 
sickness and gain health. 

Training in hygiene should be begun before the habits 
of the child are fixed. Ordinarily nothing short of a 
As the twig complete collapse of health will shake 

is bent an adult out of his accustomed habits 

of eating, sleeping or working. Even some of the world's 
greatest authorities on hygiene daily violate the rules 
they lay down for others, because they formed their 
personal habits before they acquired their knowledge of 
hygiene, and find it too much trouble to change. But 
the child can easily be led to form correct habits, pro- 
viding the models and incentives are effective. Tooth- 
brush clubs, fresh-air societies, coffee-prohibition unions, 
and other organized hygienic efforts can be made a great 
factor in fixing habits of right living among children. 

The mouth is said by some authorities to be the most 
neglected and ill-kept organ of the body. Recent in- 
Hygiene of vestigations show that approximately 

the mouth ninety per cent, of the children in our 

public schools have diseased teeth or defective mouths. 
The decay of the teeth is one of the most prevalent 
diseases known to modern civilization ; and the neglected 
mouth is a most fruitful breeding-place of disease germs, 
the open gateway through which they enter the system. 
It has been estimated that uncleansed mouths and de- 
cayed teeth are the cause of more diseases, ill-health and 
suffering, especially in childhood, than all the other or- 
gans put together. 

The poisons coming from decaying teeth are a constant 
menace to the health, and seriously lower the vitality 
even when no specific disease is caused. A series of ex- 



4i8 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

periments conducted on the school children of Cleveland 
showed a remarkable increase in health, strength and 
working efficiency when the teeth were properly cared 
for and the mouths were kept in healthy condition. In 
one group of these children who were suffering from 
various mouth troubles, a series of tests was carried out 
for a full year. As a result their working efficiency in 
school averaged an increase of ninety-nine and eight- 
tenths per cent.^ Similar reports come from Boston, and 
other places where the medical inspection of school chil- 
dren is practised. 

These facts contain a double suggestion for the rural 
school-teacher. First, through proper care of the teeth 
and cleansing of the mouth daily, much of the decay that 
attacks children's teeth and many of the other mouth 
difficulties can be saved. Further, all children should 
have their mouths inspected by competent dentists at 
least twice each year, and the tooth cavities filled. Tooth- 
ache is practically unnecessary in childhood, and is a sure 
sign of conditions that need immediate attention, not 
alone to avoid suffering but to protect the general health 
as well. It has been thought by many that the teeth of 
children, being only temporary at best, were not worthy 
of serious attention, at least before the arrival of the 
second set. It should be one of the aims of the teacher 
to dispel this foolish and harmful notion. 

A very common defect noticeable in children is what is 

called "mouth-breathing." This is usually caused by a 

bacterial growth in the back part of 
Adenoids ^, - , , • , 

the nasal passages known as adenoids. 

Adenoids not only hinder the breathing of the child, but 

* Report of W. G. Ebersole, M. D., before the Fifteenth Inter- 
national Congress on Hygiene. 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 419 

sap his vitality and interfere with his physical develop- 
ment to such a degree that the average size of children 
suffering from adenoids is considerably under that of 
normal children of the same age. The effect of adenoids 
on mental growth and ability is fully as marked, and 
many a child thought to be backward in his intelligence 
has suddenly shown himself to be normally bright when 
the adenoids were removed. Every child who habitually 
breathes through his mouth has some defect of the nasal 
passages which should have the attention of a physician. 
The problem is not alone that of the immediate health 
and development of the child, but also in many cases 
decides whether the trouble shall become permanent and 
perhaps result in deafness, or whether it shall be cured 
by a simple operation or other treatment. 

Enlarged tonsils constitute another serious trouble of 
childhood. Few children escape all forms of throat 
troubles, and a considerable propor- 
Diseased tonsils ^j^^ ^^^ ^^^^.^^^ ^^ recurring difficul- 
ties growing out of diseased tonsils. This condition is 
easily detected by a swollen and inflamed appearance at 
the back of the throat, and is usually accompanied by a 
tainted breath. The tonsils when in this state predispose 
to several serious diseases. They offer the most fruitful 
culture-ground for the diphtheria germ, and admit the 
pneumonia germ into the system. And even if these 
more serious diseases are not contracted, inflamed tonsils 
are certain to result in recurrent attacks of tonsilitis, and 
other forms of sore throat. Incalculable damage is done 
to the health and development of children by the neglect 
of this simple matter, which can usually easily be rem- 
edied by a physician. Nor should it be forgotten that 



420 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

every child with diseased tonsils is a constant source of 
contagion to others. 

The average country child is at a great disadvantage 
in the matter of bathing. The bathroom is a part of the 
Hygiene of regular equipment even of the cheaper 

bathing tenement houses of the cities, while 

many a pretentious farmhouse located on a quarter sec- 
tion of fine land is innocent of all arrangement for bath- 
ing except such as is afforded by the family wash tub 
brought into the kitchen for the special occasion. It is not 
strange under such conditions that the bath degenerates 
into a weekly performance, approached without enthusi- 
asm and experienced without enjoyment. Indeed it is to be 
feared that winter bathing is almost unknown in more than 
'one rural home, and that many children come to look upon 
the bath as a luxury instead of a necessity. While this is 
one of the most delicate problems in hygiene which the 
• teacher has to meet, it is one that most needs to be coura- 
geously faced. Let the children once get their standards 
fixed at the frequent bath, let them come to realize both 
its necessity and its pleasure, and much will have been 
done toward adding the bathroom to the rural home. 
And this one factor alone would go far toward bet- 
tering hygienic conditions surrounding farm life. 

The hygiene of food is a matter that the pupils can not 
themselves control to any great extent in the home, since 
the standards are fixed by the older 
Hygiene of food j^gj^bers of the family, and the chil- 
dren are expected to eat what is placed before them. The 
introduction of domestic science into the schools, how- 
ever, and the new emphasis being placed on the teaching 
of hygiene, offer hope that the influence may extend from 
the school to the home. Children should be taught the 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 421 

harm that comes from a too constant use of pork as a 
meat diet, and should be led to discover the cause of 
many of their headaches in the overuse of the frying-pan. 
Fresh fruits and vegetables are a luxury on many farm 
tables, though they are absolutely necessary to good 
nutrition. With an abundant supply of good milk avail- 
able on the farm, most farm children early contract the 
habit of drinking both coffee and tea. Such unhygienic 
habits of diet as these are largely a matter of ignorance or 
carelessness. There is no thought of stinting in the supply 
of food, and most families believe that the children are 
well fed. What is needed is a new set of standards of what 
constitutes suitable food, especially for growing children. 
And it is a part of the function of the rural school to 
help, through the teaching of personal hygiene, in estab- 
lishing such standards. 

Probably from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent, of the 
children attending the rural schools have a sufficient de- 
. feet in vision to interfere with the 

best success in study. A considerable 
number of these have forms of eye trouble that will 
constantly become worse if not treated in time. Not 
infrequently the eye-strain is such as to cause nervous- 
ness, irritability or headaches on the part of the children. 
The mother of such a child recently came to the teacher 
and complained that her daughter was working too hard 
on her studies, as she came home each night with a head- 
ache. The teacher had a suspicion that the difficulty was 
with the child's eyes instead of her studies, and persuaded 
the mother to take her to an oculist. The difficulty was 
removed, and the girl not only lost her headaches, but 
improved in her studies. 

While it is not to be expected that the teacher can be 



422 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

trained in medicine, or know how to apply technical tests 
to the eyes or ears, this is not necessary in order to detect 
signs of defects of these organs. Simple tests of vision 
can be given in a few minutes from cards that can be 
ordered for a few cents from any oculist, and which 
should be a part of the equipment for teaching hygiene in 
every school. The hearing can be tested by the ticking 
of a watch, or through speaking in a low tone some dis- 
tance from the pupil, and asking him to repeat the words 
pronounced. 

Physical form and carriage easily result from the pos- 
tures and movements habitual to youth. Let a child sit 
. and write for a few months at a desk 

that is too high for him, and curva- 
ture of the spine follows. Or let him sit awkwardly "lop- 
sided" as he works, and the result is the same. One large 
school for girls has found that almost forty per cent, of 
the girls coming from the public schools have curvature 
of the spine. School postures are responsible for most 
of this. Leaning forward over the desk while studying 
contracts the lungs, thus decreasing their air capacity, be- 
sides giving a permanent stoop to the shoulders, and caus- 
ing unnecessary strain to the eyes. A careless shambling 
gait soon becomes habitual, and finally characterizes its 
possessor. Lounging as one sits, crowds the organs of 
the body and indicates both physical and mental indo- 
lence. 

Two factors enter into the successful teaching of per- 
sonal hygiene : first, the children must be taught the facts 
Making instruc- about their health and growth, and 
tion effective the laws that govern them ; but next, 

and not less important, they must be stimulated to apply 
these laws to their own lives. Any well-informed teacher 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 423 

can teach the laws of hygiene, but it is the teacher of 
exceptional power and influence who can make these laws 
effective in the lives of his pupils. 

Perhaps the hygienic habits and standards of the 
teacher himself are the most important influence of all in 
The teacher's ^^^ effective teaching of hygiene to 

health children. The teacher whose entire 

personality radiates health and physical well-being has 
a great advantage over the teacher suffering from ill 
health or any physical defects. Perfect teeth, well-kept 
hands and nails, an easy poise, grace of movement and 
all other signs of care and attention to the well-being 
of the body are a constant source of suggestion to the 
pupils. On the other hand, decayed or uncleansed teeth, 
untrimmed nails, stringy hair, or other evidences of care- 
lessness in personal hygiene will go far toward nullify- 
ing the most expert teaching. 

As a safeguard to their own health teachers need to 
give the most careful attention to personal hygiene. 
Teacher's liability Reliable statistics show that teachers 
to disease are shorter-lived than workers in 

other occupations. They are also subject to various ills 
induced by their work and manner of life which, while 
they may not shorten life, rob it of much of its joy and 
satisfaction. A study of the cases of illness among 
eighteen thousand teachers for one year showed them to 
be liable especially to influenza, nervous complaint, throat 
and chest difficulties, intestinal disorders and anemia. 
In the matter of tuberculosis the teacher makes an ap- 
palling showing, the mortality rate being approximately 
as high for the teaching profession as for the notoriously 
unhealthful occupations of stonecutter or saloon-keeper.^ 

* See Terman, The Teacher's Health page two hundred and 
fifty-nine. 



424 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

At its best the work of teaching is highly fatiguing. A 
great part of the teacher's work must be done standing, 
Conditions of thus adding physical strain to long- 

physical strain continued mental exertion. The 

teacher's mind must be keyed to a high pitch for hours 
at a time, the attention finding hardly a moment for re- 
laxation. The actual teaching must be done v/hile order 
is maintained in the class and in the school, and while 
the responsibility for the whole organization rests on 
the mind of the teacher. Both mind and body are there- 
fore kept at high tension during the greater part of the 
school-day. Nor does the teacher's work end with the 
closing of the school. Every teacher, especially in the 
rural school where there are so many different classes to 
teach, requires at least half as much time to read written 
work and prepare for the next day's lessons as is devoted 
to actual teaching. This means, therefore, a day fully 
as long as that of the laborer, and at an occupation 
vastly more wearing to health and vitality. 

The character of the teacher's work, together with 
the nervous strain, results in an excessive eye-strain. 
The teacher's '^^^ proportion of teachers suffering 

eye defects from various forms of trouble affect- 

ing the eye is from this cause greater than the average 
for other occupations. In Germany thirty-five per cent, 
of the teachers wear glasses ; the percentage is somewhat 
less in this country, though it is probable that the differ- 
ence is more from an unwillingness to wear glasses than 
from less eye-trouble. The part played by eye-strain in 
producing headaches, nervousness, insomnia and other 
disorders is too well known to require comment. 

Not a small part of the danger to the teacher's health 
is connected with the matter of nutrition. This is par- 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 425 

ticularly true of the rural teacher, who usually does not 
live at home, but boards in the family of some farmer 
Nutrition and the of the district. The table set in this 
teacher's health home may be bountiful and well 
adapted to the nourishment of those engaged in hard 
physical toil. But the teacher has comparatively little 
physical exercise, and does not require the heavy diet 
suitable for the workers on the farm. The appetite 
which craves fruit, fresh vegetables, cereals and other 
lighter foods, rebels at the abundance of meats, gravies, 
fried potatoes and rich pastries that characterize the 
farmer's table. And the teacher, not being in his own 
home, naturally feels it impossible to get food different 
from that eaten by the rest of the family. The result 
is often indigestion, malnutrition and a general condi- 
tion of lowered vitality, if not physical degeneration. 

In view of these conditions the teacher owes it to him- 
self and his school to provide as wide a margin of safety 
The teacher's ^^ possible for his health. He can 

margin of safety do much to relieve the eye-strain by 
consulting oculists, and following himself the rules for 
the hygiene of the eye which he teaches his pupils. He 
can provide for a reasonable amount of daily exercise in 
the open air, preferably in the form of games that will 
occupy the mind as well as the body. The matter of 
the boarding-place should receive the most careful con- 
sideration. The schoolroom can be kept well ventilated, 
and free from dust. The heat of the room can be regu- 
lated, and an open basin of water kept on the stove in 
winter to increase the humidity of the air. The habit 
of worry over school problems and of dwelling on the 
unpleasant or puzzling matters of the day can be reso- 



426 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

lutely abandoned, and in its place the tendency to happi- 
ness and pleasant moods cultivated. 

And the school as well as the teacher will profit by the 
teacher's obedience to the laws of hygiene. For it is the 
Health and teacher whose nerves are worn and 

efficiency whose digestion is impaired, who 

scolds and is short of temper and cold in sympathy. 
But the teacher who is the embodiment of health, and 
who is himself the best proof of the value of the hygiene 
he teaches, is a constant stimulus to right living on the 
part of the pupils. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. What laws of hygiene are most habitually violated 
by your pupils? Can you make your teaching so ef- 
fective as to reach these bad habits? 

2. What percentage of your pupils under sixteen years 
of age drink coffee? Smoke? How many have bad 
teeth? Bad tonsils? Defective hearing? 

3. What provision do you make in your school for 
washing the hands? What kind of towels do you use? 
Are paper towels preferable to linen for school use? 

4. How many of the homes of your pupils are pro- 
vided with bathrooms ? Do you know the bathing habits 
of your pupils? Will it not require much tact on the 
part of the teacher to discuss hygienic questions effec- 
tively without giving offense? 

5. How many of your children actually use a tooth- 
brush at least once a day? Can you devise any methods 
to lead them into this essential habit? 

6. Do you know how to give simple tests for vision? 
For hearing ? Have you given any such tests ? 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 427 

. 7. Have you felt any ill effects on your own health 
from teaching ? Do you worry ? Have you lost or gained 
in weight? Have you any tendency toward tubercu- 
losis ? 

8. How far do you think the standards of personal 
hygiene you set are followed by the pupils? Is it likely 
that bad habits may be followed, even if good habits are 
not? 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE PLAYGROUND 

The country affords the natural playground for child- 
hood. Here there is plenty of room, and sunshine, and 
Country life air, and freedom. In the city it is 

and play j^ot SO. The buildings take up all 

the room; there is often no place worthy the name for 
playgrounds, — the occasional vacant lot, the prim park, 
the streets full of traffic and presided over by policemen, 
and now and then a roof ! Tens of thousands of city 
children have no place to play, except where play is for- 
bidden. During a recent month there were some five 
hundred arrests of children for misdemeanors on the 
streets of New York, and almost half of these arrests 
were for playing ball ! Thus play becomes a crime, be- 
cause there is no room for it. It is only the country 
that is not crowded for space. 

One would expect from these conditions that we 
should find the country children the best players in the 
world, adept in all athletic sports, and realizing in them 
an important factor in physical, mental and moral de- 
velopment. But such is not the case. Rural children in 
general are not skilled in play, for they do not have the 
opportunity to learn to play. True, much of the best 
play does not need to be learned formally, but is spon- 
taneously picked up through imitation, or invented on 
the spur of the moment. But, on the other hand, play 

428 



THE PLAYGROUND '429 

activities can be much broadened and their interest in- 
creased by guidance. Play, like work, needs to be 
learned as an art. Especially is this true of games, 
which are but organized play. 

The rural child is ordinarily greatly limited in his 
range of games. He sees but few different games 
R 1 h'M do P^^y^^j ^"*^ ^s seldom taught new 
not know how games. As a still further handicap, 

to play j^g often attends school where there 

are so few children that to organize games successfully 
is impossible. The result is that many rural children 
do not utilize even the little time they have for play. 
They may often be seen moping around the schoolroom 
at recesses, when they should be out on the playground. 
Or they gather in little groups, or separate off in pairs 
for conversation or gossip. Bickering, quarreling, tale- 
bearing and fighting are much more common than in the 
town schools, where the children are too busy in play 
to engage in these things. Under such conditions the 
social impulses are not cultivated; the ideals of sports- 
manship are lacking; and the powers of initiative, de- 
cision and daring required in games are not developed. 

It is impossible for children to develop normally with- 
out play. Indeed, play is a constant factor in all ranges 
of animal life. Says Karl Groos: "Perhaps the very 
existence of youth is due in part to the necessity for 
play; the animal does not play because he is young, 
but he is young because he must play." Schiller says, 
"When hunger no longer torments the lion, and no beast 
of prey appears for him to fight, then his unemployed 
powers find another outlet. He fills the wilderness with 
his roars, and his exuberant strength expends itself in 
aimless activity" — he engages in play. So if we watch 



430 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

the swarming insects dancing in the sunshine, the playful 
kitten chasing its ball, the lambs frisking in the sunshine, 
we see the same impulse at work; they are but obeying 
the common impulse to play. 

A recent writer says : "Wherever freedom and happi- 
ness reside, there play is found; wherever play is lack- 
Why play is so i"?' there the curse has fallen and 
necessary sadness and oppression reign. Play 
is the natural role in the paradise of youth; it is child- 
hood's chief occupation. To toil without play places 
man on a level with the beasts of burden. 

"But why is play so necessary? Why is this impulse 
so deep-seated in our natures? Why not compel our 
young to expend their boundless energy on productive 
labor? Why all this waste? Why have our child-labor 
laws? Why not shut recesses from our schools and so 
save time for work ? Is it true that all work and no play 
makes Jack a dull boy? Too true. For proof we need 
but to gaze at the dull and lifeless faces of the prema- 
turely old children as they pour out of the factories where 
child labor is employed. We need but follow the children 
who have had a playless childhood, into a narrow and 
barren manhood. We need but to trace back the his- 
tory of the dull and brutish men of to-day and find that 
they were the playless children of yesterday. Play is as 
necessary to the child as food, as vital as sunshine, as 
indispensable as air." ^ 

The moral value of play can hardly be overestimated. 
City playgrounds have been found to transform gangs 
Play a moral °^ hoodlums into well-behaved base- 

safeguard ball teams, and prospective crimi- 

^Betts, The Mind and Its Education, page one hundred and 
seventy-seven. 



THE PLAYGROUND 431 

nals into skilful and law-abiding athletes. Children 
who are engaged in active play not only find an 
outlet for surplus energy, but have their minds safely 
employed as well. There is a stage in the development 
of youth when the thoughts need to be occupied with 
objective interests, and not allowed to rest on self. 
Loafing and dawdling are always dangerous occupations 
for young people, and especially so when they are in the 
company of others of the same age. Many immoral and 
impure suggestions could be saved the minds of innocent 
childhood in our rural schools if provision were made 
to utilize all the recreation time in healthful play, in- 
stead of allowing it to be spent in mischievous idleness. 

The dearth of recreation and amusement in the coun- 
try is one of the most fruitful causes of young people 
Evils resulting deserting the farm for the city. For 

from lack of play youth demands its playtime as natur- 
ally as it demands its food and sleep. Let rural schools 
provide as fully for the natural play activities of its boys 
and girls as is coming to be done in urban schools, and 
these interests will prove a powerful anchor attaching the 
youth of the farm to rural life. 

Children should be taught to play, just as they should 
be taught to study or to work. Instruction should be 
Children should be given in the activities^ of the play- 
taught to play ground, as well as in the activi- 
ties of the schoolroom. Plays and games, not less 
than mathematics and science, should form a part 
of the curriculum. In Germany and England, the play 
period has long been a regular part of the curriculum. 
It is being rapidly introduced in many of the more pro- 
gressive of the towns and cities of the United States 



432 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

at the present time, and is nowhere more needed than 
in the rural school. 

The question naturally arises as to the school play- 
ground and its equipment. For the introduction of play 
The school ^^ a part of our system of education 

playground carries with it the necessity for ade- 

quate grounds and material, and these must be provided 
for as much as the equipment of the shop or the labora- 
tory. It need hardly be said that the average rural-school 
yard is not calculated for a playground. It contains all 
the way from a few square rods to about one acre of 
ground. The schoolhouse is usually set near the middle 
of the area, with the coal or wood-shed adjoining, and 
two outbuildings at the rear. Trees are often located in 
such positions as to interfere with the use for play of 
what small space there is left. The grounds are seldom 
leveled, or the grass and weeds kept down. Of appa- 
ratus for the playgrounds, there is usually none. The 
sign posted on the side of an Arkansas school building, 
"Fifty dollars fine for any one found trespassing on these 
grounds after school hours," represents an attitude of 
mind altogether too common with reference to the use of 
school premises as playgrounds. The school yard has 
been one of the least utilized of our educational re- 
sources. 

During the last ten years, however, a great play move- 
ment has arisen and is spreading rapidly throughout the 
country. Cities are spending hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in obtaining room for their children to play, and 
in supplying equipment for grounds already provided. 
Even in towns and villages, and here and there in coun- 
try schools, the movement has taken hold, and the school 



THE PLAYGROUND 433 

yards are being utilized as playgrounds. Equipment, 
often rude and poorly constructed, but nevertheless far 
better than none, is being installed. Not infrequently 
this apparatus is purchased through the enterprise of 
the school itself, or built by the members of the school 
and the patrons. 

The playground movement should spread until it in- 
cludes every rural school in the land, whether this school 
Grounds necessary be the old type of district school 
for rural schools or the larger consolidated school. 
Such a project successfully carried out, v^ill re- 
quire larger and better equipped grounds in con- 
nection with many country schoolhouses. It is impossi- 
ble to set any arbitrary standard for the size of the rural- 
school ground because of the greatly varying sizes of 
the schools. But it should be large enough to lay out 
a baseball diamond, and not require the appropriation of 
neighborhood pastures or fields as is so often the case 
at present. Where the school grounds are used for a 
neighborhood park and picnic place, as is coming to be 
the rule in many places, still larger grounds should be 
supplied. The minimum size for the average rural-school 
ground should not be less than two acres. If the school 
is a consolidated school and desires to have neighbor- 
hood athletics as well as the general school play carried 
on, then the grounds should be correspondingly larger. 

The schoolhouse should not be set in the center of 
the grounds as is so often done, thus so dividing the 
Placing of the ^vea. that it is impossible to lay out 

school building suitable athletic grounds on any part 

of the area. The building should be near the front, with 
shrubs, perennial flowers and a well-kept lawn between 
it and the road. At the sides and rear of the building 



434 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

there will then be space for the athletic activities without 
interfering with the windows, or with plants and shrubs 
growing on the grounds. 

The school playgrounds should be thoroughly leveled 
and sodded and the grass carefully mowed, not only 
Preparation o£ the during the school term but through 
playgrounds the summer as well, in order that 

coarse stubble and weeds may not interfere with games 
and play when the school first opens in the fall. All 
rough places should be smoothed, gullies filled, stones and 
cinders removed, and everything else accomplished that 
is required to put the grounds in first-class condition. It 
has been estimated by one student of school playgrounds 
that half the rural-school yards of the country could be 
improved fifty per cent, by the simple process of closing 
school early one or two afternoons, and setting the chil- 
dren at work with rakes, hoes and shovels, leveling, clean- 
ing up and otherwise putting the grounds into condition. 
Where the yard needs a more thorough treatment than 
can be given by the pupils, the school officers should 
not hesitate to employ the help required and pay for it 
out of public funds. 

The next important factor is that of apparatus. A 
great many schools are now installing play equipment 
on their grounds. Very frequently 
this is done without consultation with 
any authority or expert on the matter of apparatus, and 
the best is not always selected. And not only is the 
best apparatus not always chosen, but some that is posi- 
tively dangerous is being employed. The various pieces 
are frequently set in wrong places, and sometimes they 
cost several times what they should. All these difficulties 
can be removed by a little care and study. 



THE PLAYGROUND 435 

The simplest, cheapest and most serviceable piece of 
equipment for the play of younger children is the sand 
bin. In fact the sand bin may be 
called the forerunner of the whole 
playground movement, for out of it have grown many 
other developments of the playground idea. Long before 
the child is old enough to start to school, he loves to 
play in the sand, and this interest continues up to the 
age of ten or twelve years. The sand bin takes up little 
room and may be placed in some corner where the larger 
children would not find space enough for their games. 
It should be about eight by twelve feet and ten inches 
high. Around the edge should be placed as a table a 
twelve-inch board, which may be used either for molding 
the sand or as a seat for the young children. The sand 
bin should be placed in the shade, as otherwise the sand 
becomes too hot in the summer time, and the children 
are exposed to the heat when at play. The finer and 
whiter the sand the better, although any good plasterers' 
sand will be suitable. It is evident from hygienic con- 
siderations that the sand should occasionally be removed 
and clean sand be put in its place. 

Probably the most common piece of apparatus for the 
play of young children is the swing, and almost every 
school when it starts the installation 
00 swings ^£ pi^^ apparatus begins with swings. 

The swing is, however, unless certain cautions are ob- 
served, one of the most dangerous of all pieces of play 
apparatus. Swings are also frequently so constructed 
as to look unsightly, and obstruct the use of the grounds 
for other play. The most approved type of swing now 
being used on the school playground has the frame made 



436 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

of steel gas pipe from two and one-half to three inches in 
diameter. The uprights are well braced in both direc- 
tions and set in concrete footings some twenty inches 
square and from three to four feet deep. 

The great danger from swings is not, as most people 
think, from falling out while the swing is in motion. 
This, as a matter of fact, rarely happens. Nine accidents 
out of ten caused by swings are from hitting children who 
are running by. If a child runs past the swing and is 
struck on the side of the head by the swing board, he 
will certainly be seriously injured, and runs danger of 
being killed. A device commonly used in connection 
with school swings is that of nailing a piece of rubber 
hose on each side of the swing board to deaden the blow 
in case a child is struck. Swings for school yards should 
not be more than ten feet high, and for younger children 
not more than eight. As much enjoyment can be had 
from a swing of this height as from a taller one, and 
the danger is altogether less. Swings should always be 
set in such position that they operate parallel to the 
school fence or building, and never at right angles, be- 
cause of the greater danger of striking children engaged 
in other play. If swings are placed under strict rules, 
such as allowing no children to swing standing up, the 
danger from their use will be greatly minimized. The 
steel pipes together with the footings for the swing can 
be purchased from the local machinery dealers. The 
boards can be made by any rural carpenter or by the boys 
of the school. There should be several swings as a part 
of the playground equipment of any good-sized rural 
school. 

The see-saw as a piece of play apparatus is as old as 



THE PLAYGROUND 437 

the impulse to play itself. It is not, however, one of 
the most satisfactory devices for the school ground. In 
^. the first place, the see-saw requires 

practically no physical exercise, it in- 
volves no mental skill or invention and requires but little 
social mingling. It therefore possesses a minimum of 
advantage in physical or mental training. The see-saw, 
if not well constructed, is also one of the most dangerous 
pieces of apparatus, simple and harmless as it looks. 
Especially is the short see-saw to be dreaded. The steep 
angle increases the liability that the child at the lower 
end will slide off, letting the other one drop down to the 
ground. The longer the see-saw, the safer, provided it 
is not lengthened beyond the point of safety in strength. 
The long see-saw should be carefully supported and the 
number of children allowed on either end at the same 
time strictly limited. Every see-saw should be provided 
with some device by which the child can cling with his 
hands. One school which had recently introduced a new 
set of poorly constructed see-saws reported a half-dozen 
broken arms within a few weeks of their use. Probably 
the best school ground see-saw is made out of a fourteen- 
foot plank, twelve inches wide, set upon a steel or con- 
crete support. 

A newer piece of apparatus and one rapidly coming 
into great favor upon the school ground has been copied 
from the amusement park. This is 
known as the slide. That the slide 
will minister to a very fundamental play impulse is evi- 
dent from the fact that all children possess an irresistible 
tendency to slide down banisters, cellar doors, or any 
other available slope. Many people have the idea that 



438 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

the slide is dangerous because of its height. One ex- 
perienced play director reports, however, that in thirteen 
years' constant experience with the use of school play- 
ground slides, no accident of serious nature has ever oc- 
curred except by slivers from carelessly made slides, 
where cheap material was used. Mothers sometimes ob- 
ject to the use of the slide as play apparatus, saying that 
it is hard on clothes. This, however, is disputed by those 
who are familiar with its use, especially if the slide is 
made of smooth material and kept in good condition. 

Unlike the sand bins, the see-saws and the swings, 
the making of the slide should probably not be under- 
Installation of taken as a piece of home construction. 

the slide It can be bought for as little as it will 

cost to make it, and for less if a carpenter has to be hired 
for its construction. Steel slides have been devised and 
are found in operation in various playgrounds. They are, 
however, not entirely satisfactory, being at all times sub- 
ject to rust, and in the winter proving too cold and in the 
summer too hot for comfort. Probably the best slide is 
that made of maple. This material sometimes warps 
slightly but it never slivers and can be finished very hard 
and smooth. The cost of these slides can be estimated 
from the fact that a Chicago firm sells a nine-foot slide 
for seven dollars and fifty cents and a fifteen-foot slide 
for twenty-five dollars. Although the slide costs slightly 
more for first installation than some other pieces of 
apparatus, it is really highly economical, as almost any 
number of children can use it, following one another in 
rapid succession. One slide will thus serve many times 
the number that can use a swing or a teeter board. 

The horizontal bar should be a part of every school 
playground equipment. Half-grown boys always have 



THE PLAYGROUND 439 

acrobatic tendencies, and desire to show their muscular 

strength and agility in the various performances pos- 

n^x. ^ ' J. 1 ^ sible with the horizontal bar. These 
The horizontal bar . , . , 

bars are easily set either in substan- 
tial wooden posts or on steel supports similar to the 
standards for the swings. It is well in a school of some 
size to have several bars, one five and a quarter feet, one 
six feet, and one six and a half feet high. Since it is 
usually impossible to have mats under these bars as is the 
rule in gymnasiums, the solid earth should always be 
dug out from under them and the cavity filled with fresh 
sand, so as to reduce the danger from falling. The bar 
itself should be detachable from the posts so that it can 
be taken in and kept free from rust when not in use. 
Suspended rings for acrobatic performance can also be 
easily and cheaply installed. These should be of standard 
make, and so securely fastened that no accident from 
breakage is possible. If, in addition, several two-inch 
climbing ropes are included in the equipment, this phase 
of the playground apparatus will be fairly well provided 
for. 

Besides such equipment for play, the school ground 
should provide an adequate equipment for certain games. 
Equipment for ^^ ^^s already been suggested that a 

games baseball diamond should be perma- 

nently laid out on the school ground. If the school is 
consolidated and hence has a considerable number of 
larger boys, a football field will also be desirable for fall 
use. Basket ball is coming to be a favorite game with 
both boys and girls, and a basket-ball court may well 
form a part of the equipment of the school playground. 
Where space will permit, the girls will find the game of 



440 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

hockey highly interesting and well adapted to the type 
of play that should engage their attention. 

Many schools are at present introducing indoor base- 
ball played out-of-doors. This game is suitable for girls 
as well as for boys. The regulation 
oor ase diamond is thirty-five feet square, but 

the game can be satisfactorily played, at least by girls, on 
a twenty-seven-foot diamond. Bases are made of sacks 
filled with sand, and a seventeen-inch ball is used. The 
diamond should be so placed that the ball will not be 
batted over the fence or against the school windows. 

Volley ball is coming to be one of the favorite school 
games, especially for schools that have not sufficient room 
for all kinds of games upon the play- 
^^ ground. It is a game that requires but 

very little space and one which children of all ages can 
easily learn to play. It demands constant activity, quick- 
ness of perception, and accuracy of judgment ; and it has 
a tendency to correct the effects of bad postures in the 
schoolroom. The equipm.ent costs next to nothing. 
Closely related to volley ball is another ball game called 
"tether" ball. This game also requires but little space 
and is adapted to people of various ages and to both 
sexes. The rules for laying out all these grounds and 
for playing games can be had from any athletic library, 
such as the Spaulding Library, of Chicago, for ten cents 
for each set of rules. 

It is doubtful whether any weight-throwing such as the 

discus or the shot or even quoits should be allowed on the 

school playground on account of 
The running track ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^. 

gaged in other sports. However, every rural school 
could easily provide a running track and a jump- 



THE PLAYGROUND 441 

ing pit along one side of the yard. The running track 
will not require any special expense except the smooth- 
ing, although if the track is cindered and rolled, it will be 
an advantage. The track should be some ten feet wide 
and if possible one hundred yards long. This track will 
be found highly serviceable not only for the larger boys, 
but for the younger children as well. Students of child 
life have discovered that interest in running has reached 
its height at the age of ten or eleven years, and has a 
tendency to decline after that age. An almost endless 
number of relay races and other forms of track events 
can be arranged if this simple device is provided for. 

Finally, the rural-school playground should have at 
least one, and probably several jumping pits. The pits 
should be filled with sand, which 
ought at all times when in use to be 
kept well stirred, and soft, so as to avoid the jar that 
comes from striking after the jump. The approach to 
the pit should be supplied with a regular take-off board 
for the broad jump. As a companion device, there 
should be a pit provided with standards carefully set for 
the high jump. 

If it is objected that all this equipment costs so much 
that it is out of the range of possibility in the average 
rural school, it may be answered that with the neighbor- 
hood help available, the entire equipment could probably 
be installed for less than one hundred dollars. It is 
doubtful whether any other one hundred dollars invested 
by the community in the education of its children will 
bring larger results or greater happiness than this invest- 
ment in the school playground and its apparatus. 

And even if public funds are not at present generally 
available for the equipment of the school playground, the 



442 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

case is, nevertheless, far from hopeless. New move- 
ments usually must be initiated by private enterprise. 
Cost of apparatus Many of the best school playgrounds 
and how met now in use were prepared and the 

apparatus provided through the efforts of enthusiastic 
teachers and pupils. School sociables, entertainments, 
auctions of articles made in the manual-training shop 
or the domestic-science course, and canvasses for funds 
by the pupils, are some of the means that have been suc- 
cessfully employed for this purpose. Often a "neighbor- 
hood day" can be arranged in connection with some 
school program, and a large amount of work on the 
grounds and apparatus carried out without cost. In 
many cases, material even, has been freely given by 
patrons or friends interested in the playground. An en- 
thusiastic, well-informed teacher can furnish a play- 
ground for his school if he will. 

This all means that the teacher must himself know how 
to play. He should know plays and games as he knows 
The teacher must ^''' arithmetic and geography, and be 
know plays and able to instruct on the playground as 
S^"^^^ well as in the class room. He should 

be familiar with playground apparatus, and know the best 
types and their cost. He should be able to direct in the 
laying out of a baseball court, and to supervise the erec- 
tion of swings, giant strides and teeter boards. The 
books of rules governing the games suitable for the 
school should be as much a part of his library as any 
other reference works. Nor should this preparation and 
knowledge be in any sense perfunctory or professional. 
The teacher should love play for its own sake, and believe 
in it as an important part of education, both for himself 
and his pupils. 



THE PLAYGROUND 443 

FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

T. Do the children of your school know how to play — 
have they a rather wide range of plays and games 
adapted to their age and sex ? 

2. Have you taught your pupils any new games? 
What books of games and plays are you familiar with? 
Were you ever taught games and plays ? 

3. Have you ever found pupils quarreling or fighting 
principally because they had nothing better to do? Are 
the children safer morally when engaged in play than 
when loitering about? 

4. Is your school ground suitable for games and 
plays? If not, could it not be improved to make it so? 

5. Do you not believe that you could arrange to have 
your school equipped with a reasonable amount of play 
apparatus as described in the chapter? Would it be a 
good plan to start the project with a school sociable 
in order to raise a fund? 

6. You can, of course, arrange for a running track, 
jumping pits and the like with absolutely no expense, if 
you can obtain the help of a number of the larger boys 
of the school to do the work. Will it not pay you to 
do at least this much as a start? 

7. Do you plan to inform yourself on the matter of 
plays and games and their rules, so that you can direct, 
referee, or even coach for them? 

8. Do you, yourself, like games and plays? Should 
a teacher play with the pupils ? 



PART VI 

THE OUTLOOK FOR RURAL 
EDUCATION 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



THE NEW EDUCATION 



What, then, is the outlook for rural education ? Amer- 
ica is the land of big things. Ours is a country so broad 
Greatness of ^^^^ three centuries have not sufficed 

American en- to people all its vast domain. We are 

terpnse engaged in undertakings so large that 

the continent is spanned by a railway, or a canal is 
blasted through a mountain range to unite the waters 
of the oceans, and we hardly stop to think about it, let 
alone to wonder over it. We are busy garnering for- 
tunes from natural resources so rich that we can only 
guess at the wealth hidden away in our mines, our forests 
and our soil. We conceive our commercial enterprises 
in hundreds of millions of dollars ; we run our sky- 
scrapers up fifty stories ; and we spread our factories out 
over broad acres of ground. 

But the greatest projects and most significant enter- 
prises in which we are to-day engaged are not, after all, 
the extension of our boundary-lines, the digging of our 
canals, or the operating of our factories, — but the run- 
ning of our public school system. 

This is true if we consider the question from the stand- 
point of the destinies involved ; for the very foundations 
Magnitude of our ^^ ^"^^h home and state are found in 
school system the public schools. It is true from 

the standpoint of expense: two million dollars each 

447. 



448 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

school-day, some four hundred milHon dollars a year, 
go for the current running expenses of our schools. 
The schools are our greatest project viewed from the 
number of people engaged in the work; for on each 
school-day nearly twenty million boys and girls look into 
the faces of half a million teachers. Twenty million 
school children! A number two-thirds as great as the 
entire population of the country when the guns were fired 
on Fort Sumter. Twenty millions ! So many that if they 
should take hold of hands in one great line they would 
girdle the earth at its greatest circumference. Or, if they 
were gathered at one place, say on the eastern coast, 
formed in columns of four, military fashion, and 
marched westward across the country, other fours wheel- 
ing into line continuously at the rear, the head of the col- 
umn would have to pass across the coal fields of Pennsyl- 
vania, across Ohio and Indiana, on out across the great 
Middle West, and on to the very waters of the Golden 
Gate before the last of the fours would find room at the 
rear of the column. So great is the army of American 
boys and girls whose future success and happiness depend 
so largely on the efficiency of our great system of schools. 
The American public school system really had its 
origin on the day when the one hundred pilgrims left the 
Origin of our Mayilozver and set foot on the new 

public schools continent. There they stood on that 

gray autumn afternoon, with three thousand miles of 
threatening waves between them and the homes they had 
deserted for a principle. There they stood, with three 
thousand miles of unclaimed wilderness, but no homes, 
before them. These Puritans possessed a genius for 
three things: government, religion and education. And 



THE NEW EDUCATION 449 

it is to their genius for education that we owe the begin- 
nings of our school system. For in 1636, when Boston 
was but six years old, these colonists did a marvelous 
thing: they started the Boston Latin Grammar School, a 
school of high-school grade. Boston was then but a 
straggling little village along one crooked street ; poverty 
was threatening the very existence of almost every 
household ; and nearly half of the members of the colony 
had been carried to their last resting-place on the hillside 
near the village. Yet out of their penury and want, they 
found it possible to provide for education, so that learn- 
ing might "not be buried in the graves of the fathers." 

But they did not stop here. Before the first generation 
after the Mayfloiver cast anchor were past school age, 
Early educational Massachusetts had passed a series of 
progress school laws laying the foundations of 

our entire school system — the first in the world to offer 
education free to all at public expense through taxes 
voted by the people themselves. It is not our purpose to 
trace the fascinating story of the development of the 
struggling infant of yesterday to the great giant of to- 
day. Suffice it to say, that as our nation grew and waxed 
strong, the schools were changed to meet new conditions, 
until we have the magnificent system of the present day. 

But the change is still going on. Indeed it is taking 
place faster to-day than ever before. The twentieth 
Profound changes century, young as it is, has seen 
now under way changes so marked that we are justi- 
fied in speaking of "the new education." We are on the 
eve, if not in the midst, of an educational movement that 
will have profound social effects, and result in funda- 
mental changes in our educational system. 



450 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

Nor is this new movement confined to any one class of 
schools. It reaches from the largest city school to the 
A new interest smallest rural district. Our people 

in education everywhere are experiencing a new 

birth of educational interest and enthusiasm. Legislatures 
in every state are passing new laws promoting education. 
National, state and private commissions have been ap- 
pointed to study various educational questions, and a 
large proportion of these commissions are devoting their 
attention to the rural schools. The daily press, the weekly 
press and the magazines are giving an unwonted amount 
of space to criticizing or defending the public schools. 
That much of the discussion is irrelevant and much of 
the criticism unjust does not so much matter. It is far 
better to discuss a thing without settling it than to settle 
it without discussing it. The main point is that thinking 
people everywhere are coming to realize that our greatest 
national problems are those connected with the education 
of our children. 

The urgent need is for the teachers, the natural lead- 
ers of the educational movement now getting under way, 
Present need *° ^^^ clearly the weighty problems 

of leadership involved, and the magnificent oppor- 

tunities offered. They must be ready to direct the tide of 
this newly awakened energy and enthusiasm so that prog- 
ress shall result. They must be able to teach the igno- 
rant, to arouse the indiflferent, lend courage to the weak- 
hearted, and spur on the indifferent. For much needs 
to be done. The people are far from clear at certain 
points as to what they need or desire. They only know 
that education is coming to have a new and more vital 
meaning, and that one's usefulness as a citizen, and 
one's efficiency and future happiness depend very much 



THE NEW EDUCATION 451 

on the quality and amount of this education. They know- 
that a new ideal for education is arising, but they are 
not wholly clear as to the nature and meaning of the 
ideal. It is for the teachers to reveal this to them. But 
the blind must not undertake to lead the blind. The 
teachers themselves must catch the spirit of the new edu- 
cation, and be its true interpreters to the people whom 
they serve. 

Every teacher needs now and then to step back from 
the details and minutiae of his work and view it in its 
The teacher's larger aspects; for the forest is al- 

need of vision ways in danger of becoming hidden 

by the trees. We need to separate ourselves from the 
daily grind and routine, and take a survey of the broader 
educational problems, especially as they relate to our own 
field of activity. For only thus can we make sure that 
we are moving toward a goal, and not merely in a circle. 

It is the purpose of this volume to help the teacher 
take such a view of our contemporary education, with 
Vital questions especial reference to the rural 

demanding answer schools. Looked at from such a van- 
tage point, what do we discover? What are the ideals 
toward which we are moving? What can we do to in- 
crease the efficiency of the rural schools for the millions 
of American boys and girls who receive all their educa- 
tion in these schools? How can we make the rural 
schools return larger service to the nation, and particu- 
larly to the agricultural communities which support 
them? How can we increase the loyalty of the rural 
community to its school ? How can we keep the children 
of the rural communities in school longer, so that they 
may gain as good an education as that possessed by the 
town and city children ? How can we improve the rural- 



452 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

school buildings and equipment? How can the rural 
school help keep the people of the farms from flocking to 
the towns and cities? How, in short, can we gain the 
best possible educational opportunities for the one-half 
of our people who are educated in the rural schools? 

It is always important that such questions should be 
answered, but it is doubly important that they should be 
Why we must answered just at the present time, 

answer such For we are advancing. And man, 

questions |jj^g ^j^g q|(J warrior who cast his hel- 

met far ahead into the ranks of the enemy and then 
fought his way forward to it, always advances by pur- 
suing a flying goal, — some ideal that he sets on ahead as 
the end of his striving. It is all the more important that 
we see our way clearly now because we are advancing 
so rapidly, and mistakes made in our educational policy 
will handicap coming generations of pupils. 

The new movement toward efficiency in the rural 
schools is but a part of a larger movement affecting all 
What is the "new °^^ schools. It can therefore best be 
education"? understood by inquiring first, How 

are we changing our ideal toward the meaning of educa- 
tion in general ? What do we mean by the "new educa- 
tion"? 

It is characteristic of the present age that nothing is 
taken for granted. The question. Why, confronts us at 
Crucial questions ^very turn. Just why should we ex- 
asked of education pend half of all our taxes for the 
running expenses of our schools? Why should we sup- 
port nearly twenty millions of our youth while they are 
employing their time in school? Why should we with- 
draw over half a million of our best men and women 
from other occupations and pay them for teaching 



THE NEW EDUCATION 453 

school? Why should boys or girls spend eight, twelve 
or sixteen years of their lives in school, instead of enter- 
ing on some occupation? What is education, any way, 
that we should make so much trouble over it? What do 
we mean by education ? What do we mean by the "new 
education" ? 

Each term means just what those who use it put into it 
as meaning. The term education has meant vastly differ- 
Changing meaning ent things at different stages of his- 
of education tory„ In the Middle Ages, education 

meant very little. It was not thought to have any part 
in culture, or in preparation for life. It was fit only for 
the slave or underling, and far beneath the dignity of the 
merry knights who so gallantly slew one another in joust 
or battle. Still less was it allowed to mar the charms of 
the fair ladies of the time. Hence very few of either 
sex could even read or write, and there was no education 
worthy of the name. 

With the Renaissance, the new birth of learning of 

the fifteenth century, education came to be looked on 

TV p ^. with more favor. It was seen to be 

Dawn of present 

concept of a part of culture and development, 

education ]3^|■ education was the luxury of the 

few and not the necessity of the many ; hence the masses 
still plodded on in intellectual darkness. The Reforma- 
tion brought the demand for a more general education. 
But education was conceived very narrowly, even by 
most of the educated. Every man must be able to read 
his own Bible, but education was thought to play little 
part in the preparation for the secular affairs of life. 
And even in establishing our own New England schools, 
the forerunners of our great public school system, the 
chief purpose as set forth in the statute was to circum- 



454 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

vent "that old deluder, Satan," through the rehgious use 
of education. 

But the meaning of education has gradually been ex- 
panding. The rise of democracy and the increased worth 
J a e placed on the individual have shown 

democracy upon us that every person has a right to the 
education f^jj development of his powers as 

well as the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness." Every child, therefore, has the right to an educa- 
tion, and to such an education as will bring out to the 
fullest degree the capacities inherent in his nature. For 
these are his life's capital, his inheritance from former 
generations ; they constitute the power he will be able to 
invest in his career, and measure the efficiency possible 
for him to attain in all his activities. Not to supply our 
children with the best opportunities we are able to com- 
mand for their education is to rob them of their birth- 
right, and to fall beneath our own ideals for social de- 
mocracy. 

A new meaning is also being given education from an- 
other point of view. It is coming to be seen as directly 
New demand related to efficiency. And efficiency is 

for efficiency the key-note of the twentieth century. 

Efficiency is the one thing the lack of which is not forgiven 
in the industrial or professional world, and the possession 
of which brings the highest success and rewards. It is the 
open sesame in every line of activity. Industrial workers 
must be able to turn out a certain amount and grade of 
the product they work on, or else be crowded out by those 
who can ; the demands are relentless. Great commercial 
enterprises are built on a foundation of efficiency reach- 
ing from the head manager to the lowest employee. Ag- 
riculture demands efficiency to a degree undreamed of 



THE NEW EDUCATION 455 

a generation ago. When we employ a lawyer or a sur- 
geon, we ask for one thing — efficiency. Explanations 
and excuses are not accepted as legal tender ; nothing but 
results will be accepted. And the same demand applies 
in the management of the home. The hygienic care of 
children, the scientific selection and preparation of food, 
and intelligent guarding against disease, are a part of the 
general demand for efficiency applied to the household. 

And this new demand for efficiency has helped us to 
understand the real meaning of education. Education is 
Education the road ^^^ ^P^^ '^oad to efficiency. This is 
to efficiency the new definition of education, — the 

meaning that is supplanting all other definitions. What- 
ever leads to efficiency is education, and what does not 
lead to efficiency is not education, whatever else it may 
be. No matter how long the schooling, or how hard the 
studies, or how great the amount of learning, therefore, 
these things must lead to efficiency in the concrete busi- 
ness of living if they are to be called true education. 
Professor James tells us that most of us never succeed 
in calling forth and using all the powers we possess, and 
estimates that if all the power and ability in men could 
be brought out and utilized, it would increase the effi- 
ciency of the human race by fifty per cent, at one leap. 
It is the business of education to get hold of this last 
fifty per cent- of power in our boys and girls and set it 
at work in increasing their usefulness an-d success. This 
is the new education, — education for efficiency. 

Nor is the greater efficiency sought through the new 
ideal for education some theoretical, visionary or in- 
Practical meaning tangible thing. It is rather the result 
of efficiency of harnessing the interests, motives 

and abilities of the individual, and setting them at work 



456 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

on the problems and duties lying nearest at hand. It re- 
quires that we shall look out on the millions of children 
entering our schools and see in them the future citizens 
of our country. Through education, these children are to 
be so trained that they shall not only have the knowledge 
necessary to citizenship, but also the patriotism, and the 
impulse to unselfish service necessary to efficient citizen- 
ship in a republic. Education must eliminate the three 
great foes of democracy — ignorance, selfish greed and 
low ethical standards. We shall also see in these children 
the future makers of the homes of our land, and through 
education give them the training necessary to the coming 
fathers and mothers of our race. We shall fit the men 
to be able to support the home in economic independence, 
and fit the women to manage and care for the home and 
to be the true guides, comrades and teachers of the chil- 
dren. Likewise, Ave shall see in the rising generation the 
future members of the community, church and all other 
social institutions, and seek so to educate them that they 
may in these relations live the fullest lives possible for 
themselves, and render the largest possible service to 
others. 

Nor does the new ideal for education omit the voca- 
tion. For all our welfare, happiness and progress rest 
Education and finally on a foundation of labor. Man 

vocations was made to work. In fruitful labor 

he not only finds his greatest satisfaction, but also his 
largest development and achievement. Every person 
must therefore be fitted into some useful vocation, and 
made an efficient worker. Education has long neglected 
the worker. It has been coveted for the culture and 
training that it gives, and has been recognized as a nec- 
essary part of the equipment of the professional man. 



THE NEW EDUCATION 457 

But it is only recently that the education of the industrial 
worker has been realized as essential. The new educa- 
tion sees its responsibility in preparing every worker, no 
matter what is to be his vocation, for the highest degree 
of efficiency in his chosen line. 

We are therefore coming to recognize the necessity for 
training the hand as well as the head. Towns and cities 
Rise of vocational ^^^ establishing trade schools either 
education in connection with the high schools, 

or else as separate institutions. Almost every field of 
industry is now represented in the schools of some of 
our larger cities, though we are still far behind the 
schools of Europe in these lines. Agriculture is coming 
to be a part of the regular course in a large proportion 
of the schools of our towns and cities. Courses in do- 
mestic science will soon be almost as common as those 
in science and mathematics. And the rural schools have 
also felt the effects of the new movement, and are intro- 
ducing studies relating to the life and work of the farm. 

Everywhere, through education, we are seeking to 
open the road to concrete efficiency in the actual affairs 
of life. Hence it is that education is coming to take 
on a new and more vital meaning than it has ever before 
had, and people of all classes are seeking its advantages 
in ever increasing numbers. 

The new ideal in education is also increasing the 
amount of training sought by those who see in education 
. . , the road to efficiency. The amount of 

amount of edu- schooling received by the American 

cation demanded child is still far too little, being slight- 
ly less than three full years; but this period is rapidly 
lengthening. Every grade and type of school is feeling 
the new impulse to a more extended and complete educa- 



458 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

tion. The proportion of children entering the primary 
grade who go on through the higher grades to the end of 
the elementary school is constantly growing. The attend- 
ance in the high schools is steadily increasing in propor- 
tion to our population; and the number who continue 
through the college or the technical school is becoming 
larger. Our people, long believing in education as a 
matter of theory, are coming to believe in it as a 
matter of practical fact, and are willing to invest time, 
money and effort in order to gain its advantages. 

The rural school has felt the effects of the new stimu- 
lus and is retaining an increasing proportion of its pupils 
Effects upon the to complete the eight grades of its 
rural school course, thus preparing them for the 

high school. Rural-school graduation is coming to be a 
regular feature of the work among the country schools, 
and especially in rural districts where rural high schools 
are also available. It is true that this advance among the 
rural schools has as yet touched only a pitiful fraction of 
the whole number, and that the rural child of the present 
day is receiving only a small part of the education that 
is his by right. To increase the amount of education re- 
ceived by the farm child is one of the most important of 
our educational problems of the present day. 

But perhaps the efficiency ideal for education has had 
the most marked effect of all on the curriculum, — what 
is given the child to study in order to prepare him for 
his life activity. When education was looked on as a 
matter of mere culture, or of discipline of the mind, it 
did not matter so much what was studied. But, since we 
have come to see that education is directly and immedi- 
ately related to success in the concrete affairs of life, it 



THE NEW EDUCATION 459 

has become evident that the school must present such 
matter for the child to study as will give him the training 
needed in these concrete affairs. We are no longer satis- 
fied therefore with the bare rudiments of education, nor 
with an empty culture that does not relate itself to the 
daily life. 

Under the newer ideal for education we are coming to 
see that mental discipline is directly related to the amount 
Practical subjects ^f interest and effort which the pupil 
winning place himself puts into study, and that it 

has no meaning except as it applies to the actual affairs 
in which he sets his powers at work. The recognition of 
this principle is resulting in the remodeling of our school 
curriculum in the direction of supplanting the old formal, 
dry and theoretical disciplinary studies with practical, 
concrete and interesting subjects fitting immediately into 
the life and experience of the learner. In the high 
schools, Greek and Latin are giving way to the study of 
the mother-tongue, the material and social sciences, and 
the handicrafts. History is no longer being taught as a 
succession of dates interspersed with descriptions of 
political intrigues and military campaigns, but as an ac- 
count of the life and development of a real people and 
their institutions. Literature is losing its mechanical 
and critical method, and is being taught more with refer- 
ence to its beauty and the development of a love for good 
reading. Even the material sciences are feeling the im- 
pulse of the new efficiency ideal in education, and the old 
formal courses of abstract laws and interminable classi- 
fications are giving way to practical phases of concrete 
physics, applied chemistry, agricultural botany, and prac- 
tical physiology and hygiene. 



46o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS - 

In the leading rural schools the changes are no less 

marked. The empty drill over senseless arithmetical 

r,, . ^, tangles never to be met in actual life, 

Changes in the ^ , . . ' 

rural-school the barren lessons on the niceties of 

curriculum grammatical analysis and linguistic in- 

flections, and the useless and deadening crowding of the 
memory with useless facts, dates, 'events and places 
never called for in affairs outside the school have no 
place in the new education. They do not lead to effi- 
ciency, hence are being supplanted with studies that im- 
mediately appeal to the interest and enthusiasm of the 
pupils, and directly relate to the life and work of the 
farm. The "three R's" are as well taught as ever, — 
indeed they are better taught, for there is interest and 
life in the school. But in addition, the children study 
the farm crops, the farm stock, the farm home and many 
other things that open the road to efficiency in their 
life and work. The influence of the changes toward a 
more practical and interesting curriculum can hardly be 
overestimated. 

The new education calls for efficiency in teaching. It 
is evident that we can not get efficiency out of education 
New standards unless we put efficiency into it. In 

of teaching the older day, the vocation of the 

teacher was looked on with contempt, and the teacher 
was not regarded with esteem in the community. Horace 
Mann tells of visiting a school in a miserable cottage 
where a number of children were crowded together with- 
out any occupation. He inquired of the master, a with- 
ered old man who lay on a bed in the corner of the 
room, "Are you the schoolmaster?" "Yes, sir." "And 
what do you teach?" "Nothing, sir." "How is that?" 
"Because I know nothing." "Why were you appointed ?" 



THE NEW EDUCATION '461 

"Why, sir, I had been taking care of the pigs for many 
years, but getting too old and infirm for that, they sent 
me here to take care of the children." 

But we are coming to see in this day that teaching 
is a matter of supreme importance. The teacher is one 
The teacher's ^^ ^^^^ most important factors in our 

position of power civilization, either leading our chil- 
dren to efficiency, or else leaving them stranded in in- 
competence from lack of education. The teacher con- 
fronts a threefold problem, whose magnitude is almost 
appalling. He must know thoroughly the subject-matter 
that he is to teach, and in addition, a wide range of in- 
formation outside his immediate subjects, so that he 
may have background and perspective for his teaching. 
He must know the nature and mode of development of 
the child, his interests, ambitions, problems and tempta- 
tions, as well as his intellect. And the teacher must also 
know the running of the school; a machine so intricate 
and complex that its mastery is no simple problem. The 
teacher will, therefore, occupy a new position of dignity 
and power in the new education. He must be adequately 
prepared for his work, and will receive correspondingly 
greater rewards, both in honor and in financial compen- 
sation. 



FOR teachers' discussion AND STUDY 

1. Has our advance in education kept pace with our 
industrial progress during the last twenty years? What 
are the dangers of allowing education to fall behind? 
(Political, social, economic, personal.) 

2. What evidences are there in the schools themselves 
that a new movement in education is getting under way ? 
(Point of view, organization, curriculum, teaching.) 



462 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

3. How much influence can teachers really have to- 
ward stimulating- or directing educational reform ? Upon 
what factors does the extent of the teacher's influence 
depend ? 

4. Without reference to former definitions that you 
may have learned, what is your definition of education? 
Stating the same question differently, what are the tests 
or measures of an educated person ? How does this differ 
from the older point of view? 

5. Measured by any standard course of study now in 
use, what amount of education do the boys and girls 
fourteen to eighteen years of age in your township 
possess? (It would be highly instructive to make a 
careful survey of the youth of your township with a view 
to answering this question statistically. If such study 
were carried out for an entire county, it would be still 
more interesting.) 

6. What rural-school subjects most need revision to 
bring them closer to the life of the pupils ? Do we spend 
too much time on arithmetic? (Is mere number so im- 
portant that its study should claim nearly one-fourth of 
the elementary school's time for eight years? Do we 
spend too much time on grammar? Does a child attain 
facility in the use of language through the study of tech- 
nical grammar?) 

7. What is the social status of the teacher ? Do teach- 
ers rank with business or professional men in their 
standing in the community ? If there is a difference, what 
are the causes ? 

8. What are the different forces now actually at work 
in reshaping the school and curriculum? (Tradition, 
teachers and organizations, social demand.) Estimate the 
relative importance of each of these forces. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE PROMISING FUTURE 

In spite of its many shortcomings rural education has 
a promising future. For the neglect of rural schools 

Future of rural ed- ^^^ "^^ ^°"S continue under the new 
ucation promising ideals that are coming to dominate in 
country life. The farmer and his problems are now a 
center of public interest. Every force in the nation 
stands ready to cooperate in order that the great funda- 
mental industry upon which every other industry depends 
may be a success. Large numbers of citizens are awake 
to the necessity of redirecting many of the rural activi- 
ties, and especially the rural schools. A great bankers' 
convention recently discussed rural education. Trade 
journals are devoting much space to the consideration of 
rural problems, and business men are everywhere con- 
cerned for the advancement of rural schools. Manufac- 
turers and captains of industry are studying the rural 
problem as carefully as the problems of their own or- 
ganizations. Learned and religious bodies throughout 
the land are earnestly striving to understand and assist 
in the betterment of rural conditions. 

But most significant of all are the many signs that the 
rural people themselves are beginning to reach out for 
the great opportunities they have not yet utilized. Farm- 
ers are coming to see that their farms can be made to 
pay much larger profits for the labor expended on them, 

463 



464 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

and at the same time yield a greater return in food and 
supplies for the waiting millions. And they are like- 
wise awakening to the obligation they owe their children 
in preparing them for a successful career. 

All these conditions emphasize the importance of rural 
education ; for education is, after all, the only means by 
Rural schools the which the reconstruction of rural con- 
means of progress ditions can be brought about. The 
rural school is the crucial factor in the situation involv- 
ing the advancement of agriculture and the future of 
rural life. As goes the rural school for the next genera- 
tion, so in large measure will go the whole trend of 
agricultural interests. The schools are the most natural 
and efficient agency by which the information and new 
ideals affecting rural life can be introduced into the rural 
communities. Corn clubs, dairy trains and farmers' in- 
stitutes are all praiseworthy and important factors, but 
these reach only a part of the farming population. The 
rural school reaches them all, or at least can easily reach 
them all when it is fulfilling its mission. 

So fully is this fact realized that the rural school is 
coming to occupy the center of educational interest and 
Rural schools now attention throughout the nation. The 
the center of federal government is encouraging 

interest rural education in very practical 

ways ; the bureau of agriculture is making the rural- 
school problem an important feature of its work; the 
bureau of education is constantly studying the rural- 
school question, and publishing much material bearing 
on its problems. State legislatures are seeking to pro- 
vide for the future of rural education ; there is not a 
state in the union whose last legislature did not seriously 
discuss measures favorable to the rural schools, and most 



THE PROMISING FUTURE 465 

of them passed laws which will have far-reaching re- 
sults. 

The recent laws have taken many directions, among 
which are increased levies of taxes for the support of 
R t 1 • 1 t* n *^^ common schools ; requirements 
promoting rural for the better preparation of rural 
education teachers ; the payment of higher sal- 

aries ; the promotion of the teaching of agriculture and 
the industrial arts in the rural schools ; state aid for the 
consolidation of rural schools ; better laws for the trans- 
portation of pupils to consolidated schools; provisions 
for the estabHshment of experimental gardens for the 
teaching of agriculture; the betterment of rural school 
buildings ; the providing of playgrounds ; instruction of 
rural teachers in hygiene by competent medical authori- 
ties ; the extension of compulsory education laws ; the 
lengthening of the rural-school year ; the establishment 
of rural-school libraries ; providing better supervision for 
rural teaching; the extension of high-school privileges 
among rural pupils ; better facilities for the training of 
rural teachers; the establishment of rural high schools. 

These conditions all indicate that the sordid crust of 

indifference is beginning to give way; the ground-swell 

■o 1 .. of a great movement for the reclama- 

Farmers awaken- . *= ... 

ing to opportunity tion of the rural school is bemg felt. 
of rural schools 'p|-,g conviction is rapidly gaining 
headway that the old type of rural school is a poor in- 
vestment, and that no better investment can be made 
than rural schools of the right type. Farmers them- 
selves are beginning to realize that in the poor and ineffi- 
cient district school lies one of the most fruitful causes of 
the deterioration of the rural community which they so 
loudly decry. They are coming to see that if the better 



466 BETTER RURAL" SCHOOLS 

families are to be kept from deserting the farms for the 
town, they must be supplied with an opportunity to edu- 
cate their children well in the country. And it is becom- 
ing clear that we can not keep ambitious boys and girls 
on the farm by lecturing to them on the beauties of 
country life and the dangers of the city, while at the 
same time we do not supply them the opportunities they 
crave and need for their own development. The real 
function of the rural school is therefore passing out of 
the realm of doubtful theory, and becoming a matter 
of a concrete business and social investment; in place 
of being considered a drain on the public purse, it is 
being increasingly conceived as the most promising in- 
strument for the furthering of all rural interests. 

Not only is it wholly evident that rural children must 
be given a better and more comprehensive education than 

Education for farm ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^" receiving, but it is 
must be had in also clear that this training must be 

rural schools supplied in rural schools, and not be 

entrusted to the schools of the towns and cities. The 
school for the education of the children of the farm 
must radiate the spirit of country life — it must it- 
self be country life. This does not mean that all 
who are born on the farm m.ust remain farmers, regard- 
less of fitness or choice ; the spirit of democracy demands 
that all paths shall be left open ahead of every person 
that he may choose which he will follow. But a very 
large proportion of those attending the rural schools 
select the farm as their occupation, and a much larger 
proportion might be led to do so. It should be the great 
function of the rural school, then, to educate for a suc- 
cessful career in the vocation most of its constituents 
will follow. 



THE PROMISING FUTURE 467 

The rural school of the future must therefore become 
a dynamic force in the community, attracting boys and 
j^ , , , £ girls from the farms, and so fitting 
future to attract into their lives as to show the value 
boys and girls of tj^g education it has to offer. It 

must supply them with the heritage of well-developed 
powers, and the knowledge and skill required for suc- 
cessful living. It must uplift every phase of rural life, 
social and industrial as well as intellectual. The rural 
school of the future can do this; that it has not done 
it in the past is in large part because it has never con- 
ceived its function clearly. That this demand is not too 
great for the rural school of the future is shown by the 
fact that hundreds of schools are now carrying out this 
splendid program of rich service for their communities. 
These better schools are scattered here and there in many 
states, each standing as an example, and pointing the way 
for others. The seed has been planted, and it is begin- 
ning to bear fruit. 

This high ideal for the rural school means a reversal 
of our system of education in rural communities. We 
have been running our educational machinery backward. 
Instead of preparing for agricultural pursuits, the rural 
schools have been so organized that they have selected 
out and prepared a favored few for the town high school. 
The many have been left to fall by the wayside some- 
where from the third to the fifth grade, because of the 
dry and formal curriculum, the poor teaching and the 
uninviting surroundings. Those who finally have reached 
the town high school are probably the best and the most 
ambitious of the country product. The high school has 
taken this choice material and fitted it for the college. 
The college again has received the best of the high-school 



468 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

product, and prepared it for a professional or a business 
career; few or none have returned to the farms. Thus 
our rural schools, in so far as they have had any con- 
scious aim, have served as feeders to the schools that 
from their very nature have drawn people away from 
the farm, and contributed nothing directly to it. The 
rural school of the future must reverse this harmful 
process ; it must so relate its spirit and work to the life 
and vocation of agriculture that the country shall not 
constantly be robbed of its best material for the further- 
ance of the occupations of the city. 

The typical rural education of the future will for the 
most part be conducted in consolidated schools, possibly 
Consolidated consisting in many cases of groups of 

school to be the suitable buildings, instead of one large 
typical rural school building. The one-room school will 
more and more suffer from comparison with consoli- 
dated schools, and will come to be looked on as a tempo- 
rary expedient, ready to give way at the earliest possible 
moment to the more efficient central school. Country 
roads will be constantly improved and the children will 
be conveyed at public expense to the consolidated schools. 
Surrounding these schools will be ample grounds, consist- 
ing of a number of acres, and accommodating a cottage 
for the head of the school. Every industry carried on 
in the district will find some place in the curriculum of 
the school, either for the young, or for the older ones 
who will also use the school as a means for self-improve- 
ment and advancement. The school will be so closely re- 
lated to the life of the community that every kitchen, 
barn, dairy and farm will be in some sense a laboratory 
for the school. The growing crops, the fruits of the 
orchards and gardens, and the domestic animals of the 




H 



THE PROMISING FUTURE 469 

farm will all furnish material for study and the applica- 
tion of lessons taught in the school. 

One of the chief concerns of the rural school of the 
future will be the health of the children and the corn- 
Rural school to munity. With the help of medical in- 
conserve health spection and expert assistance sent 
by the colleges, universities and normal schools to assist 
in the country-life problem, we shall seek out and aim to 
remedy the local cause of ill-health in the neighborhood. 
The tragic loss of life, the useless sacrifice of health, and 
its accompanying burden of sorrow will no longer be 
tamely tolerated. How to live long, happily and effi- 
ciently will constitute one of the chief lessons of the 
school. The rural school will offer definite instruction on 
the question of the daily supply of food as it is raised, 
prepared and appetizingly cooked. This will constitute 
one of the chief problems of instruction for every boy 
and girl; for with the necessity thrust on us of eating 
three times a day throughout our life, and of being de- 
pendent for our energy, life and intelligence on our food 
supply, this question becomes one of the most concrete 
and important in education. 

Nor will the rural school neglect the question of our 

housing. The architecture of the country home, its sani- 

_, ^ 1. 1 ^ tation from cellar to garret, and the 

Future school to . . ' 

promote good need of cleanlmess will all be matters 

housing q£ instruction in the rural school of 

the future. It will show, both by precept and example, 
the value of neatness, of taste, and of beauty in the home. 
Systems of ventilation, of lighting, of heating, and modern 
devices for cooking and cleaning will be important topics 
of instruction. The pupils will have an opportunity to 
study the question of drainage for house and barn, of 



470 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

sewerage, of the disposal of waste, and the providing of 
a pure water supply. Sources of infection in the home 
from impure water, tubercular milk and the house fly 
will be thoroughly understood. 

The matter of clothing will not be forgotten. A part 
of the course of the rural school of the future will deal 
Dress to receive ^'^^^ ^^^ nature of fabrics, the mode 
attention of their manufacture, the value of col- 

oring stuffs, processes of cleansing and all other ques- 
tions related to economy and taste in dress. Not only 
will the children be taught proper standards of dress and 
what constitutes suitable apparel for various occasions, 
but every girl will learn how to cut, fit and make 
with her own hands the ordinary clothing for herself 
or any member of the family. The hygiene of clothing, 
and the relation of proper clothing to health and free- 
dom from disease, will be thoroughly understood. A sug- 
gestion of the need of such instruction is had from the 
recent campaign initiated by medical authorities to pro- 
tect children from the contagion of infantile paralysis 
through the very simple process of saving them from the 
bite of infected flies, by the expedient of discouraging 
the senseless custom of allowing children to go with bare 
legs and feet exposed. The General Education Board 
is also waging war against the hookworm disease in the 
South through teaching the necessity of wearing shoes 
instead of going barefoot. 

The rural school of the future will make a very val- 
uable and concrete contribution to the success of farm- 
Rural school of ^"^- ^^^"^ demonstrators of the Gen- 
future to aid eral Education Board working in the 
farming South are obtaining on their demon- 
stration farms in every state about double the yield of 




Ci'iiricsy of G. 1. Christie 

Farmers and farmers' boys judging corn at an agricultural short course 



[^m.- J- .- < 


1_ ij^i|rt||Pfl 




'fi^in^il 


'^.. 


- li 



Courtesy of G. I. Christie 

School children and progressive farmers meeting the Corn Extension 
Train of Purdue, Indiana 



THE PROMISING FUTURE 471 

cotton averaged for these states. Similar results are ob- 
tained both in the North and the South by the demon- 
strators for experimentation with corn. The knowledge 
of these demonstrators with reference to the selection of 
seed and the cultivation of soils would, if universally- 
applied, fully double each of these great staple crops. It 
is estimated that $240,000,000 would be added to the 
annual profits of cotton alone in the South by this in- 
crease. At least as great an increase could be ex- 
pected in the returns from the corn crop. It is worth 
noticing that the combined increased profits of these two 
crops would easily pay the current expenses of the en- 
tire public school system of the United States. The 
knowledge required to effect this result can easily be put 
into circulation among the farmers by thoroughly teach- 
ing it in the rural schools. And even if many of the 
older generation of farmers are impervious to the new 
methods presented, the coming generation will reap the 
benefits. 

The rural school of the future will not, however, minis- 
ter to the economic side of life alone. One of the great- 

„ - - , ^ est needs in the rural community to- 

Rural school to , . , , . . , / 

minister to art day is the teachmg of the art of rec- 

and recreation reation. The labor of the farm is 

too steady and monotonous, and too seldom relieved by 
intervals of social mingling and recreative play. The rural 
school can provide for the recreative side of life as well 
as training for the more serious activities. Some healthy, 
happy recreation will therefore be a part of every school 
program. The buildings and school grounds will be 
equipped as playgrounds and recreation centers calcu- 
lated to attract not alone the young but the old as well. 
It is not too much to believe that under the stimulus of 



472 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

such incentive, the weekly half holiday will become as 
much an established custom in the country as in the 
cities. It is true that there will be rush seasons when 
this ideal will be impossible of realization ; but the princi- 
ple is thoroughly sound and needs to be introduced as a 
part of the system of rural life, if rural conditions are 
to be made equally favorable with those of the town. 

The rural school of the future will also have for an 
important part of its work the development of a sense 
To cultivate the ^^^ ^^^ beautiful. The schoolhouses 
esthetic impulse which have been the plague spots of 
ugliness scattered over our fair land are giving way to 
attractive, well-equipped buildings set in beautifully ar- 
ranged grounds. The instruction of the rural school, 
as well as its example, will show the possibilities of beau- 
tifying the home and its surroundings. Pupils taught 
the principles of landscape gardening and the decoration 
of their home grounds will use the home place as a labo- 
ratory for carrying out the principles presented and ex- 
emplified in the school. As a part of the demand of hu- 
man nature for beauty, music and art will be taught in 
the rural school, and every rural school will have its 
musical instruments, its orchestra and various choruses. 

Finally, the rural school of the future will constitute 
a library center for its community. Here will be gath- 
The rural school ^^^^ ^" adequate supply of the world's 
to become a best books and appropriate maga- 

^^^^^^'^ zines. In addition to works related to 

the farm and the home, these books will need to cover a 
wide range of interests ; for the farmer and his family 
must have wider intellectual interests than those that 
deal only with their vocation. Therefore literature, his- 
tory, science, art and poetry will be freely represented on 



THE PROMISING FUTURE 473 

the shelves of the neighborhood hbrary. The standard 
magazines will find their way regularly to the reading 
table of the school and thence be distributed to the fire- 
sides of the neighborhood. 

When these conditions have been achieved, the rural 
school will no longer be obliged to receive relatively 

_, , , , ^ uneducated and inexperienced teach- 

Rural schools to ,,,,.. 

secure better ers, and break them m for town posi- 

teachers tions. For the rural school will be 

fully as desirable a place to teach as the town school, and 
will pay as high salaries. May we not even hope that the 
rural school of the future, because of its pleasant sur- 
roundings, the concreteness of its work, and the earnest- 
ness and responsiveness of its pupils, will be able to ob- 
tain 'the choicest and most able from among all our teach- 
ers ? Will not the graduates of colleges, universities and 
agricultural schools seek rural instead of city positions 
because of the peculiar compensations the country has 
to offer? Some such redistribution of our teaching force 
is sure to take place when the rural school is raised to 
the plane it is destined to occupy. 

If all this prophecy for the rural school of the future 
seems much of a dream, let us pause to realize that it 
is a dream that must come true; else the rural life of 
our country is doomed. For all these things are now 
given freely to the town and city child. He has every 
advantage we have asked for the country child. There 
is no reason why the rural boys and girls should not en- 
joy similar advantages, except that they have never yet 
had them, and it is hard to break away from old stand- 
ards and customs. 

If it is said that sucfi a future for rural education is 
impossible because of its cost, it may be answered that 



474 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

this is a futile and senseless argument. For cost is, after 
all, relative to returns ; and there is no manner of doubt 
Rural schools can but that if twice as much money 

and must accom- were invested in rural education as 

plish these things , , ,. . , .^ 

is now done, the additional money, if 

wisely spent, would be returned to the community in dol- 
lars and cents, with a hundredfold of interest added. 
The farmers could abundantly afford to pay for better 
schools as a business investment, did they care nothing 
for the education of their children. It has been esti- 
mated by competent authority that the railroads could 
easily pay for an entire system of excellent rural schools 
out of the added traffic that would result if these schools 
were made thoroughly agricultural and industrial ; and 
also that the group of manufacturers selling products 
used on the farm, or the group of merchants dependent 
on farm trade could afford to support an efficient system 
of rural schools for the additional business growing out 
of the greater prosperity of farmers under such educa- 
tional conditions. 

True, none of these financial interests is likely to un- 
dertake the support of the rural schools; nor do we 
Rural schools a want them to. But the facts go to 
good investment show that our greatest problem in re- 
organizing the rural schools is not one of money. Better 
rural schools are one of the best possible economic 
investments ; and there is always money available for a 
good investment. Further, the recent tendency toward 
state aid for rural schools bids fair so to equalize the 
burden of their support that none need suffer from addi- 
tional expense. The really great problem now confront- 
ing us is a social problem — that of arousing the constit- 
uency of the rural schools, showing them the opportuni- 



THE PROMISING FUTURE 475 

ties and possibilities that lie just ahead, and guiding in 
a wise movement for better conditions. We need to wage 
a campaign of education for better rural schools. Let us 
next consider some of the means by which these results 
may be accomplished. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. What do you feel is the future of the rural schools 
in your region? Will they develop to match the best of 
the rural schools described in the text, or remain for a 
time on a low plane of efficiency? If the latter, what 
factors are lacking to insure progress? 

2. Do you believe that rural education in general can 
ever be made to approximate or equal town or city edu- 
cation? If not, what will be the ultimate effect on the 
farming industry? 

3. Do you think the chapter overemphasizes the in- 
fluence of rural education on the country-life move- 
ment? What is the country-life movement? What forces 
are back of it? What is its object? When did it start? 

4. What does your state require in the way of medi- 
cal inspection in schools? Do you think medical inspec- 
tion is practicable in rural schools? Where is it needed 
most, in town or country schools? 

5. What are the great national agencies now at work 
seeking to improve the conditions of rural life and educa- 
tion? How much do you know of their work? 

6. Would you be able to prove to farmers that more 
money wisely invested in rural education would yield 
large financial returns? 



CHAPTER XXX 



PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES 



None can doubt that the movement for better rural 
schools is well begun, and the outlook for the future full 
of promise. Yet the present has its pressing duties and 
opportunities. For no great cause is won in a day, nor 
are customs and standards that have prevailed for a 
century dropped in a moment. Great movements and 
deep-seated reforms never come by chance. They are al- 
ways produced by adequate causes, — by forces that are 
consciously set in motion and carefully administered. 
There is still a great amount of social inertia to over- 
come, and of ignorance and selfishness to be removed, 
before rural education will come fully into its own. 

Indifference to educational needs and advantages is 
still the rule in many communities. Prejudice yet ob- 
tains in hundreds of districts not only against the con- 
solidation of schools, but against all proposed improve- 
ments. 

These conditions must be wisely and courageously met. 

They can not be overcome by fine theories, nor by the 

appointment of educational commis- 

Need of wise action . r^, . - . , , 

sions. ihe passmg of wise laws and 

adopting of helpful resolutions may be a step in the right 

direction, but without the winning of the people most 

concerned, all these things will prove futile and fruitless. 

The reformation now being sought in rural education will 

476 



PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES 477 

require hand-to-hand work, and almost a house-to-house 

canvass to instruct, inform, convince and convert. A 

doubter must be persuaded here and a skeptic won over 

there ; the stingy man must be stirred into seeing greater 

value in his children and their future than in his stock 

and his farm. Now an obstacle will need to be removed 

from the way of progress, and again enthusiasm will have 

to be created and maintained. Movements already 

started must be cherished; projects that advance but 

slowly must be hastened, steps taken in wrong directions 

checked, and every phase of the situation watched with 

the greatest wisdom and care. 

This is to say that every agency now interested in the 

upbuilding of rural life and the better education of rural 

youth must keep devotedly at work; 
All forces needed <• ,1 j r 11, 

for the advance has only begun. 

There is hardly a stage of the rural-school progress 
that is not still in its infancy. Except in rare instances, 
rural schools are yet far behind urban schools, and with 
the best that can be done, they will remain so in many 
parts of the country for years to come. 

Many discouragements will be met by those seeking 
to advance rural education. School patrons will still 
often remain blind to the best interests of themselves 
and their children. Men who ought to be the most ar- 
dent promoters of consolidation and the reorganized cur- 
riculum will stand in its way. Those who ought to de- 
mand better teachers and offer better pay will do neither. 
Legislatures that should provide every opportunity for 
the betterment of the rural schools will now and then 
fail in their duty. Teachers who, because of their re- 
lation to the problem, might be the natural leaders in 
the new movement will in some instances fail to compre- 



478 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

hend its significance, and in others will consider it not 
worth while to employ the efforts required for its pro- 
motion. Mistakes that have already been made in the 
erection of unsuitable buildings or in locating them in 
wrong positions will have to be rectified. Inadequate 
curricula will need be enriched and reorganized. Faulty 
laws bearing on the preparation and compensation of 
teachers must be repealed and better ones passed in 
their place. In short, the whole field of rural educa- 
tion needs to be surveyed with the greatest wisdom and 
care, and some atonement made for past neglect through 
the rapidity and certainty of future progress. 

One of the gravest dangers bearing on rural school 
reorganization is that many who ought to be leaders in 
Dangers from ^^^ movement will become disheart- 

discouragement ened and give up the work as hope- 

less. One superintendent recently confessed that he was 
discouraged over the outlook for consolidation and had 
given up all attempts to bring it about. Another admit- 
ted that he feared the uncertainty of tenure in his office 
if he advertised the matter of rural-school improvement, 
and was hence keeping quiet on the subject. In both 
of these instances, however, adjoining counties had made 
splendid progress under the leadership of enthusiastic, 
wise and daring superintendents. There is no place in 
the struggle that is now on for faint-heartedness, or lack 
of faith. The "quitter" is not only a dead load; he is 
an enemy to progress, for his pessimism is contagious. 

A second danger is that other workers who have seen 

necessary reforms well started in their community may 

think that all is accomplished and 

Dangers from ^.g^gg t^g}j. vigilance and activity. 

tflkitiGT success 

for granted This attitude will be sure to mean re- 



PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES 479 

trogression wherever it obtains. For any social or edu- 
cational movement, particularly if it is but little under- 
stood, must be carefully protected and nurtured until it 
is well established. Objections must be met, mistakes 
remedied and new lines of advancement initiated. Mis- 
conceptions must be removed, and valid criticisms 
squarely and honestly answered. For example, where 
the transportation system in consolidated schools is in- 
adequate, where children are kept too long in the school 
wagons, or where any other conditions obtain which 
may rightly be questioned, the matter must be fairly con- 
sidered and remedies found which will remove the ob- 
jections. If it is found that such new subjects as agri- 
culture, manual training and domestic science are being 
so poorly taught as to result in but little value, the prob- 
lem must be mastered as to how to remove these adverse 
conditions, and not allow reproach to fall on a worthy 
system of instruction because of minor difficulties. 

If here and there a patron wishes to go back to the 
old district school and the old curriculum of the "three 
All objections to ^'s/' the reasons for his objections 
be met fairly to the new system should be consci- 

entiously sought and courteously met. One such 
man who recently insisted that an abandoned school 
be reopened, was approached by the county superin- 
tendent to know the cause of his hostile attitude. 
He at first evaded the question, but on pressure finally 
admitted that it was because he owned a large farm in the 
vicinity of the abandoned school and feared that its 
rental value might be reduced by having no school near 
at hand. He was also frank in saying that were the 
abandoned school reopened he would not send his own 
children to the school, but would continue them in a 



48o BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

consolidated school near by. It was not difficult, hav- 
ing this bit of information in hand, to persuade him 
that his position was untenable, and hence to remove 
the antagonistic attitude that might have proved a bar- 
rier in the way of further progress in his district. 

The most potent agency in the promotion of rural- 
school progress in the future will be the teachers, pro- 
Teachers the most viding they prove equal to their task, 
powerful factor and measure up to their responsibil- 

ity. The teachers can cause the movement toward the 
new type of rural education to advance very rapidly, or 
they can delay it for a generation by their indifference. 
True it is that progress is sure to come, even if we must 
wait for another generation of teachers to carry it on, or 
if we must drop out as inefficient those that refuse to 
adjust themselves to the new movement and supply 
their places with more progressive or devoted teachers. 
But the teachers of the present confront an opportunity 
and a responsibility never before presented to the rural 
teacher of this country. For the old standards are pass- 
ing away and new ideals are arising. The old-time teach- 
er w;as only required to carry out a simple school pro- 
cedure established generations before his time. The pres- 
ent-day teacher has pressed on him the responsibility of 
helping to organize and promote a new movement in rural 
education. 

The teacher is in immediate contact with pupils and pa- 
trons, hence is the best medium through which informa- 
tion and suggestions can reach the constituency of the 
rural schools. He is looked on as a specialist, and his 
advice is sought and his judgment taken on all educa- 
tional questions. The teacher's attitude is therefore very 
largely a determining factor in every project for better- 



PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES 481 

iiig the rural schools. If the teachers are indifferent, it 
will be hard to interest the patrons. If they are unin- 
formed, it will be difficult to enlighten the people. If 
they are hostile, the people will hardly be friendly to 
new policies. 

One of the chief factors in the promotion of rural- 
school progress is information. What is desirable and 
The public require possible, the lines of advance actually 
information being carried out in the best rural 

schools, is the most effective argument with patrons and 
school officers. In many conservative and backward dis- 
tricts, the rural people are in the main intelligent, but 
busied with their own affairs and centered on their own 
interests ; they do not know the remarkable progress 
already achieved in communities outside their own re- 
gion. What they need is to have this knowledge brought 
to them in a concrete and an effective manner. They 
need to have placed before them practical ideals based 
on actual accomplishment under conditions similar to 
their own. Faultfinding, adverse criticism and accusa- 
tions of obstinacy and narrowness are ordinarily not 
helpful influences ; the better method is constructive, help- 
ful criticism in the form of plans and projects already 
tried and proved feasible. 

If teachers are to assume the role of directors and 
leaders of public opinion in their communities, it is evi- 

T a her u t ^^"^ ^^^^ ^^^^ must first of all thor- 

themselves be oughly inform themselves on all 

informed questions of rural progress and par- 

ticularly of rural education. They must know what is 
being done in the leading types of rural schools in other 
places. They must be familiar with the methods that 
are being tried, the successes that are being achieved, 



482 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

and the difficulties that are being met. If teachers are to 
serve as leaders, they must realize that the blind can noi" 
lead the blind. If they are to promote instruction in agri- 
culture and make it a practical, concrete and helpful fac- 
tor in the school and the community, they must study 
the subject and enter fully into its spirit. If they are to 
teach or oversee the teaching of manual training, they 
must know the practise of this work. So also if they 
are to direct in domestic science, they must have mastered 
its principles and its technique. 

Teachers should be well informed on the matter of 
school buildings and equipment. They should know the 
Knowledge of principles governing the method of 

school buildings ventilation, heating, lighting and the 
sanitation of their schoolhouses. This is not because 
they will ordinarily be responsible for finally proposing 
or accepting the plans for new school buildings, but be- 
cause their influence and assistance are required by their 
superior officers to help shape public sentiment on these 
questions. 

Similarly, teachers should keep in close relation with 
the new legislation now taking place throughout the 
Knowledge of new country favoring the advancement of 
legislation rural education, not because teachers 

will be members of legislatures, but because their influence 
and advice should be influential in promoting sentiment 
in their communities looking toward progress through 
legislative action. 

Particularly should teachers be thoroughly informed 
on the question of consolidation of rural schools. They 
Knowledge of should know its history and its prog- 

consolidation ress to date. They should study the 

objections that are to be met and how they are to be 



PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES 483 

overcome. They should be able to form an accurate 
estimate of the relative cost of the consolidated and the 
district school systems in their respective communities. 
One teacher who had this knowledge was able to show 
an objecting farmer that his share of additional tax for 
a new consolidated building would be seventy-two cents 
a year for the next ten years. It is unnecessary to say that 
he became a warm advocate of the project. Teachers 
should know the relation of consolidation to roads and 
the transportation problem. Again, this knowledge is 
required, not that teachers may actually propose and 
carry through the plans for consolidation in their re- 
spective communities, but because the county superin- 
tendent will require their assistance in shaping the senti- 
ment in their districts for consolidation. 

It is evident from these considerations that the teacher 
occupies a strategic position in the matter of rural-school 
progress, and that as the teachers take hold of the prob- 
lem, so largely will its success be measured in the imme- 
diate future. 

County superintendents and their assistants will in 
the main have thrust on them the burden of taking the 
initiative in rural-school progress, 
coimty superin- True, state superintendents and other 
tendent in rural higher officials help to plan and out- 
line various projects, but it re- 
mains for the county superintendent to introduce these 
plans to the people. He must gain their cooperation and 
organize the forces that shall put the new policies into 
operation. He and his teachers are the ones to meet the 
objections at first hand. They are obliged to make a 
canvass of the rural constituency, and through its in- 
fluence insure the success of the project or stand respon- 



484 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

sible for its failure. For none of the projects proposed 
for the betterment of rural schools can be introduced by 
so large a unit as a state ; forward steps will be by coun- 
ties, townships and school districts. 

County superintendents and all who work under them 
therefore need to be specialists in rural life and condi- 

, tions. If they are not such when they 

Superintendents rr ^u t, u 1 ^u- 

should be rural assume office, they should make this 

specialists their special and constant study. 

They ought to be professional educators in the high- 
est sense of the term, and possess an exceptional de- 
gree of enthusiasm, and a passion for service. They 
will be required to be preeminently sympathetic and 
thorough students of the new education, and the many 
plans now being proposed for the advancement of rural 
schools. They must be able to judge which of these plans 
will prove successful under the conditions obtaining in 
their own counties, and which ones, from the nature of 
things, would of necessity prove a failure. They can 
never afford to be faddists ; for some wild project reck- 
lessly taken up may so lose the confidence of the public 
as to delay real progress for many years. 

On the other hand, the county superintendent must 
not be indifferent to the movement in rural education 
No place for the which is now gathering headway 
ultraconservative throughout the nation. Undue con- 
servatism or "fogyism" is fatal to all vital quali- 
ties of leadership. This office is no place for the 
timid nor for those who care more for political posi- 
tion than for measuring up to duty and opportunity. No 
person who is not willing to stake both his professional 
reputation and his official position on the most fruitful 



PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES 485 

projects and promising improvements available has any 
business seeking or occupying this office. 

The state superintendents, with their rural-school su- 
pervisors and similar officers, have an unusual opportu- 
nity at present and must shoulder a 
statue ^s^Jperintend- responsibility. They are the natural 
ent and his leaders and commanders of the great 

supervisor army of rural-school workers. They 

should possess the critical judgment, the enthusiasm, and 
the technical and scientific knowledge requisite for the 
successful direction of this army. It is theirs to help 
plan legislation, to aid in the introduction of new projects 
in their states, and to unify and secure cooperation from 
all the agencies working under them. How great the in- 
fluence of these superior officers is seen in the number 
of states at present making remarkable progress in rural 
education under the leadership, stimulus and guidance 
of these higher officials. 

Outside of these regularly constituted educational 
agencies is another group of powerful factors able to 
wield a large influence for the upbuilding of rural 
life and schools. 

The press of the country is the greatest single force in 
molding public sentiment, and its support of any great 
J a £ . . movement will go far toward insur- 

press for rural ing its success. The press is becom- 

education jj^g interested in the question of rural 

education; it will become still more interested as the 
movement for better schools advances. No wiser policy 
could be pursued than for educators to enlist to the full- 
est extent the cooperation of the press in spreading in- 
formation and shaping opinion. Nor is it the metropoli- 



486 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

tan press alone that should be utilized. Every county 
newspaper is a source of power for the upbuilding of 
rural schools; and every such paper is glad to lend its 
assistance to this end, for its constituency is in the main 
from among the rural people. County superintendents 
and rural teachers could make far more use than they 
do of the local papers of their communities in advancing 
the campaign for better rural schools. Weekly letters 
telling of the school activities, noting improvements, 
speaking of any special lines of work and suggesting 
needed improvement are sure to be read eagerly, and 
will do much to interest the community in the school. 

Another great influence recently entering into the field 
of rural education is that of the federal government. 
Part taken by the through the Bureau of Education and 
federal government the Bureau of Agriculture. Each of 
these bureaus maintains specialists in rural education who 
devote their time to the study of rural educational prob- 
lems and the distribution of information and suggestions 
relative to rural schools. The careful researches made 
by George W. Knorr of the Bureau of Agriculture on the 
matter of rural school consolidation constituted the first 
extensive study attempted. His published bulletins have 
been of the greatest value to all students of rural condi- 
tions. The federal Bureau of Education has recently 
devoted a large amount of time to the study of rural 
schools and the spreading of information to all rural 
workers. Many of the bulletins on rural education pub- 
lished during the last few years and freely distributed 
to all who are interested have been a fruitful guide and 
source of suggestion to teachers. Monaham's recent 
monograph on the status of rural education contains much 
information not available elsewhere. Commissioner 



PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES 487 

Claxton has, in addition, enlisted the cooperation of many 
specialists not directly connected with the federal bu- 
reau, and his office serves, through its published bulle- 
tins, as a clearing-house for educational information 
coming from these workers. Besides these important 
lines of work, the bureau is sending out weekly news 
items and suggestions that are published, hence dis- 
tributed to millions of readers, thus unifying and direct- 
ing educational sentiment in a way and on a scale never 
before attempted. 

All these things are a cause for confidence and hope. 
The day of the rural school is dawning. The cause is 
great enough to enlist the choicest 
minds and hearts of the age ; it is the 
cause of six millions of America's most deserving boys 
and girls. More than this, it is the cause of the whole 
future of American rural life. It remains with us, the 
workers of the present, to determine when the cause of 
rural education shall triumph ; for triumph it must sooner 
or later. It is possible for the next decade to see the 
virtual reorganization of the rural school system if all 
stand ready to do their part. 



FOR TEACHERS DISCUSSION AND STUDY 

1. What are the most pressing things that need now 
to be done in your community for the upbuilding of the 
rural schools? Make a list of them and decide how 
many of them you can personally advance. 

2. Do you know of any projects for school improve- 
ment that have been defeated by unwise promotion by 
teacher or official who lacked either tact or information ? 

3. In how far can teachers prove a factor in influenc- 



488 BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS 

ing school legislation? In furthering consolidation? In 
introducing a stronger curriculum? 

4. How well are you informed on the rural-school 
movement and its needs? Will you look over the list 
of book titles following this chapter and see whether 
there are not a number that you should read? How 
would you rate your professional interest? 

5. Have you ever tried to use local papers as a means 
of interesting your community in school affairs? Do 
your papers welcome such matter in their columns ? 

6. What, in general, has been the effect of reading 
this book on your attitude toward rural education and 
your efficiency in teaching? Will yours be a better rural 
school for the study you have made on the subject? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



No attempt has been made to offer a complete bibliog- 
raphy on the rural school. Indeed a bibliography that 
would include all the titles now available on this subject 
would occupy well-nigh as much space as that required 
by the entire volume. The student entering on the study 
of this rich field will, however, find a valuable guide to 
fundamental material in the titles that follow. It can not 
be too strongly urged on teachers that they make abun- 
dant use of the various bulletins issued: (i) by the 
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C. ; (2) by the United States Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C. ; and (3) by the agricultural colleges, 
especially the ones of their home states. Nearly all of 
these bulletins are sent free on request, and the few that 
are sold usually cost not more than ten cents. These 
pamphlets are clearly written in untechnical language 
and put the knowledge of great specialists at the service 
of teachers. Every teacher should at least write to each 
of the three sources mentioned, asking for a list of publi- 
cations for free or paid distribution. 



491 



492 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



GENERAL REFERENCES ON RURAL LIFE 

Bailey, L. H. — The Country Life Movement. Bailey 
stands at the head of the movement he so well 
describes in this excellent volume. 

Bailey, L. H. — The Farmer and the State. Especially 
valuable as a basis for discussion at farmers' 
meetings. 

Bailey, L. H. — The Training of Farmers. Treats of 
the public school and higher institutions in the 
training of farmers. 

Butterfield, K. L. — Chapters in Rural Progress. Pub- 
lished in 1908, but probably still the best analysis 
of rural social conditions. 

Butterfield, K. L. — The Country Church and the Rural 
Problem. 

Carney, Mabel — Country Life and the Country School. 
A helpful book, abundantly illustrated. 

Carver, T. N. — Principles of Rural Economics. A strong 
presentation of the economic problems confront- 
ing the agriculturalist. 

Country Life, report of commission. The gov- 
ernment printing office, Washington, D. C. (loc.) 
This is the most comprehensive and important 
publication available on rural life and the factors 
required for its improvement. 

Fiske, W. G. — The Challenge of the Country. A help- 
ful work, dealing with rural social, educational 
and religious conditions. 

McKeever, W. a. — The Farm Boys and Girls. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 493 



REFERENCES ON THE ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE 
RURAL SCHOOL 

Allen, W. H. — Civics and Health. An excellent treat- 
ment of the physical basis of citizenship and 
health. 

Ayres, L. p. — Open Air Schools. Shows the effects of 
fresh air on physical and mental development in 
school children. 

Bagley, W. C. — School and Class-Room Management. A 
good statement of the fundamental principles un- 
derlying the management of a school. 

Bancroft, J. H. — Games for the Playground, Home and 
School. The most valuable collection of games 
and plays now available for the teacher. 

Betts, G. H. — New Ideals in Rural Schools. A brief 
comprehensive statement of rural-school condi- 
tions and needs. 

Betts, G. H. — The Recitation. Probably the simplest and 
most helpful discussion of this subject yet pub- 
lished. 

Blair, F. G. — One-Room and Village Schools in Illinois. 
Office of State Superintendent, Springfield, 111. 
(Circ. No. 65. Free.) Contains much highly sug- 
gestive and useful information relative to improv- 
ing schoolhouses and their equipment. 

BuRBANK, L. — The Training of the Human Plant. This 
excellent little book is an attempt to apply the 
scientific principles underlying his work with 
plants to the education of the child. 



494 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CocKEFAiR, E. A. — A Correlated Course of Study in 
Agriculture, Geography and Physiology for Rural 
Schools. Special Bulletin, State Normal School, 
Cape Girardeau, Mo. (Free.) Contains sixty- 
three pages of outlines and discussion. 

CoE, G. A. — Education in Religion and Morals. A very 
suggestive and inspiring book dealing with the 
relation of morals and religion to the broader field 
of education. 

CoLEGROVE, C. P. — The Teacher and the School. The 
text discusses a wide range of topics dealing with 
organization, administration and teaching of rural 
schools. 

CoNOVER, James P. — Personality in Education. This vol- 
ume shows the important relation of a pleasing 
and attractive personality to good order, study and 
class work in the schoolroom. 

Crosby and Howe — Free Publications of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture; classified for teachers. 
United States Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C. (Free.) Contains lists on agricul- 
ture, domestic science, geography, hygiene, physi- 
ology, entomology, etc. 

CuBBERLY, E. P. — Changing Conceptions of Education. 
A brief clear statement of the growth of modern 
educational ideals in the United States. 

CuBBERLY, E. P. — Improvement of the Rural Schools. A 
brief and forceful discussion of reforms needed 
to place rural education on a rational basis. 

Curtis, H. T. — The Reorganized School Playground. 
Bulletin, United States Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C. An excellent discussion with 
a list of playground apparatus and directions. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 495 

Davenport, E. — Education for Efficiency. Deals first 
with a general discussion of the relation of educa- 
tion to efficiency and then makes special applica- 
tion to agriculture as relating to efficiency. 

Davis, B. M. — Agricultural Education in the Public 
Schools. This is not a work on methods, but a 
discussion showing the various factors at work to 
promote agricultural education in this country. 
Treats a field not covered by any other writer. 

Eliot, C. W. — Education for Efficiency. A brief defini- 
tion of what Ex-president Eliot considers an edu- 
cated man. 

GuLicK AND Ayres — Mcdical Inspection of Schools. 
Shows the need of medical inspection, its method, 
and what has been accomplished. 

Howe, F. W. — Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs. 
United States Department of Agriculture. (Free.) 
Contains history, plans and development of these 
clubs up to 1910. 

Hyde, W. D. — The Teacher's Philosophy In and Out of 
School. An enlightening discussion by the presi- 
dent of Bowdoin College. 

Johnson, Geo. E. — Education by Plays and Games. In 
a very interesting way this volume shows how im- 
portant and helpful to good school work is the 
matter of play. 

Kern, O. J. — Among Country Schools. One of the best 
contributions to rural education. 

Knorr, G. W. — Consolidated Rural Schools. Bulletin 
United States Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C. (Free.) The most complete and au- 
thoritative study of consolidation made up to this 
time. 



496 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Knorr, G. W. — 'A Study of Fifteen Consolidated Schools. 
Southern Education Board, Washington, D. C. A 
detailed account of a tour of inspection made by a 
group of southern educators to consolidated 
schools in Indiana, Ohio and Maryland. 

Leiper, M. a. — Teaching Language Through Agriculture 
and Domestic Science. Bulletin, United States 
Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. (Free.) 
Contains detailed syllabi and outlines. 

MoNAHAN, A. C. — The Status of Rural Education in the 
United States. Bulletin (1913), United States 
Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. (Free.) 
A brief excellent summary of actual rural school 
conditions throughout the country. 

O'Shea, M. V. — Everyday Problems in Teaching. A 
concrete, practical, helpful book. 

Palmer, G. H. — The Ideal Teacher. An inspiring dis- 
cussion by one of America's most famous teachers. 

Parker, S. C. — History of Modern Elementary Educa- 
tion. Deals with the whole range of elementary 
education, but especially emphasizes the curricu- 
lum. 

Reaves, W. P. — The Conservation of the Health, Teeth, 
Voice, Hearing and Sight. Privately printed, 
Greensboro, N. C. An excellent booklet, illus- 
trated. 

Russell Sage Foundation, The — A Comparative Study 
of the Public School Systems in the Forty-eight 
States. (15c.) Russell Sage Foundation, New 
York. An excellent statistical study, fully illus- 
trated with charts. 

Seerley, H. H. — The Country School. A large range 
of topics is discussed. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 497 

Slattery, M. — Living Teachers. A booklet full of in- 
spiration and helpfulness. 

State Superintendents of Public Instruction — Bul- 
letins on Consolidation or Other Rural School Im- 
provement. (Free.) Address at various state 
capitals. Especially good bulletins of recent date 
are those from Washington, Wisconsin, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Okla- 
homa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, Kentucky, North Dakota, Kansas, Illinois; 
also Superintendent O. J. Kern's annual reports, 
Winnebago County, Illinois. 

Terman, L. M.—The Teacher's Health. Gives actual 
facts and statistics as to the health of teachers. 
Also suggestions for conservation of health. 

Warren, J. E. — Agricultural Projects for Elementary 
Schools. Massachusetts Board of Education, 
Boston. (Free.) This manual is prepared as a 
guide for teachers and superintendents in the in- 
troduction of agriculture into elementary schools 
by use of the home project method. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



[References are to Pages] 

Agriculture, 

and correlation, 87. 

education in, 29. 

and nature study, 70. 

new standards in, 5. 
Agricultural Clubs, 

movement, 103. 

prize winners in, 105. 

and rural schools, 106. 
Alderman, L. R., quoted, 102. 
Arithmetic, 

and agriculture, 88. 

content of, 57. 
Arkansas, corn club boys, 90. 
Art, in rural school, 56. 
Assignment of lessons, 209. 
Attendance, 

average, 18. 

as a measure of school efficiency, 17. 

year, the, 22. 

Beauty, cultivation of sense of, 69. 
Benson, O. H., and agricultural clubs, 104. 
Building, the consolidated, 280, 284. 
Bureau of Education, U. S., 486. 

Children, 

city and rural compared, 94. 
farm, 10. 

farm and high school, 259. 
rural and play, 429. 
versus subjects, 148. 

501 



502 INDEX 

[References are to Pages] 

City, 

and country compared, 158. 

glamour of, 14. 
Civics, point of view in, 74. 
Classification, 

details of, 173. 

and organization, 172. 
Clubs, and U. S. Department of Agriculture, 104. 
Community, 

co-operation with school, 99. 

and consolidated school, 246. 

and teacher, chapter on, 153. 

and teaching, knowledge of, 154. 
Conduct, teacher and standards of, 161. 
Consolidated School, 

chapter on, 228. 

and attendance, 303. 

building and equipment, chapter on, 272. 

and relative cost, 237. 

and amount of education, 237. 

and enriched curriculum, 233. 

definition of, 228. 

and community, chapter on, 246. 

allows grading, 231. 

loyalty to, 243. 

and supervision, 236. 

site for, 286. 

as a social center, 250. 

and experienced teachers, 233, 302. 

the final rural type, 468. 
Consolidation, 

movement toward, chapter on, 215. 

the campaign for, 300. 

how to effect, chapter on, 291. 

extent of, 217. 

and equipment, 272. 

not a fad, 219. 

conditions fundamental to, 294. 

importance of movement, 226. 



INDEX 503 



[References are to Pages] 



Consolidation — Continued. 

legislation bearing on, 222. 

and rural high schools, 261. 

origin of, 216. 

not a panacea, 225. 

present status of, 219. 

and teacher, 297. 

and school tax, 286. 

unit of, 295. 
Consumer and rural school, 30. 
Contract of hack driver, 320. 
Cooperation, community, 99. 
Corn, yield of, 28. 
Correlation, 

chapter on, 77. 

and agriculture, 87. 

basis of, 86. 

dangers in, 81. 

and domestic science, 89. 

and efficiency, 85. 

and interest, 83. 

principles of, 79. 

results of, 80. 

and saving time, 84. 
Country, exodus from, 11. 
Curriculum, 

chapter on, 43. 

demand for new, 459. 

rapid growth of, 77. 

difference between old an.d new, 64* 

in old-time schools, 45. 

the reorganized, 60. 

revision of, 78. 

Davenport, E., quoted, 230. 
Discipline, and efficiency, 6S. 
District School, 

chapter on, 379. 



504 ' INDEX 

[References are to Pages] 

District School — Continued. 

and its buildings, 387. 

definition of, 228. 

and grounds, 395. 

and its library, 391. 

decreasing size of, 215. 

as a social center, 397. 

standards for, 380. 

false virtues ascribed to, 292. 
Domestic Science, 

and correlation, 89. 

in elementary schools, 71. 

and farm home, 31. 
Drawing power of school, 17. 
Driver, 

and his bond, 322. 

and his contract, 320. 

and schedule, 318. 

and transportation of pupils, 317. 

Education, 

amount of, 22, 457. 

changes under way in, 449. 

influence of democracy on, 450. 

farm children's need of, 6. 

importance of type, 24. 

the new, chapter on, 447. 

rural outlook for, 447. 

vocational, chapter on, 93. 
Efficiency, 

new demands for, 16, 454. 

new definition of, 455. 

drawing power a measure of, 17. 

and correlation, 85. 

and discipline, 68. 

loss through small schools, 215. 

loyalty a measure of, 33. 

measured by type of education, 24. 



INDEX 505 



[References are to Pages] 



Fairchild, E. T., quoted, 230. 
Farmers, 

moving to town, 11. 

and better schools, 25. 
Financial Basis of consolidated schools, 294. 

Geography, 

and correlation, 89. 

and nature study, 70. 
Girls, necessary knowledge for, 44. 
Grounds, 

and buildings, 364. 

school, 276, 395. 

Hamlett, State Superintendent, quoted, 329. 
Harris, W. T., 155. 

quoted, 230. 
Health, 

versus disease, 416. 

and teacher, 423, 426. 

public schools, 32. 
High School, 

the rural, chapter on, 258. 

and consolidation, 261. 

curriculum of rural, 262. 

equipment of rural, 266. 

Farragut, Tennessee, 267. 

growth of, 258. 

Manassas, Virginia, 268. 

outlook for rural, 270. 

and teacher training in, 134, 137. 
Home, 

industrial training in, ti). 

and school, 61. 

and teacher, 159. 
Home Project, 

study, 100. 



5o6 INDEX 

[References are to Pages] 

Home Project — Continued. 

types of, 101. 

Massachusetts, 100. 

Oregon, 102. 
Hygiene, 

school, chapter on, 400. 

and adenoids, 418. 

and bathing, 420. 

and Indiana requirements, 409. 

and rural schools, 32, 401. 

and school janitors, 370. 

of the mouth, 417. 

personal, chapter on, 415. 

and vision, 421. 

and water supply, 392, 407. 

Ideal, embodied in teacher, 116. 
Illiteracy, as a measure of education, 43. 
Impulses, social in youth, 247. 
Industrial, 

branches in rural school, 55. 

recent changes, 52. 
Industrial training in home, 50. 
Inspection, medical in schools, 401. 
Interest, the contagion of, 200. 
Interests, 

concrete and loyalty, 34. 

and correlation, 83. 

lost, 11. 

schools and home related, 61. 

Janitors, 

and contract for, 374. 

and efficiency of equipment, 372. 

and hygiene, 370. 

need for supplying, 368. 

rural school, 365. 

the teacher and, 366. 
Jordan, David Starr, quoted, 157. 



INDEX 507 



[References are to Pages] 



Kern, O. J., and play festivals, 251. 
Knapp, S. a., quoted, 71. 
Knowledge, useful versus useless, 48. 
Knoer, G. W., quoted, 224. 

Leadership, present need of, 476. 

Legislation and consolidated schools, 222. 

Lessons, assignment of, 209. 

Logan, Kate R., and special schools, 107. 

Louisiana, agricultural high schools of, 263. 

Loyalty, 

and concrete interests, 34. 

a measure of school efficiency, 33. 

Management, 

chapter on, 18L 

danger points in, 190. 

principles of, 183. 
Manual Training, in rural schools, 29, 73. 
Martin, A. B., quoted, 90. 
Massachusetts, home project study in, 100. 
Methods, in city and country schools, 158. 
Mortality, excessive in rural communities, 33. 
Music, place of in rural schools, 56. 

Nature Study, 

in curriculum, 66. 

the basis of correlation, 86. 

and esthetic sense, 69. 

and geography, 70. 

the child's starting-point, 69. 
Normal School, function of, 143. 
Normal Training, 

growth of, 142. 

in high schools, 142. 

Observation Work, necessity of, 144. 
Old-Time Schools, 

curriculum of, 45. 

social side of, 2, 



So8 INDEX 

[References are to Pages] 

Opportunity, 

waste of, 22. 

present educational, chapter on, 476. 
Oregon, home project study in, 102. 
Organization, 

chapter on, 165. 

and classification, 172. 

problems of, 166. 

work preliminary to, 168. 

Patrons, duty of school to, 26. 
Philosophy of the teacher, 162. 
Play, 

apparatus, 434. 

and country life, 428. 

and school management, 191. 

as a moral safeguard, 430. 

and the teacher, 442. 
Playground, The, 

chapter on, 428. 

apparatus for, 434. 

preparation of, 434. 

the rural school, 432, 
Point of View, 

in curriculum, 70. 

in teaching, 61, 148. 
Preparation, scholastic, 131. 
Press, the influence of, 485. 
Prices, high and farming, 30. 
Professional Training, chapter on, 140. 
Program, 

daily, the, 168. 

principles of, 182. 

Questioning, 

as a method of teaching, 206. 
principles governing, 207. 

Recitation, principles of the, 202. 
Regulations, the school, 171. 



INDEX 509 



[References are to Pages] 



Reorganized Curriculum, chapter on, 60. 
Roads, 

improvement of, 313. 

and transportation of pupils, 312. 
Route, 

the transportation, 309. 

length of, 311. 

relation of good roads to, 312. 
Routine, the school, 170, 
Rural Life, moral dangers in, 248. 
Rural School, 

new demands on, 7. 

and agricultural clubs, 106. 

early, 1. 

and the community, 30. 

difficulties encountered in, 119. 

and domestic science, 71. 

and better farming, 26. 

of the future, 463, 467. 

as an investment, 474. 

great public interest in, 464. 

financial status of, 348. 

and town schools compared, 7. 

and its management, 181. 

limitations of, 97. 

opportunity of, 14. 

duty to patrons, 26. 

and public health, 401. 

organization of, 165. 

and progress, 464. 

recent legislation on, 465. 

present status of, 8. 

vital subjects lacking in, 45. 

Sabin, Henry, 155. 

Salaries of rural teachers, 352. 

School Buildings and Grounds, 

chapter on, 364. 

care of, 365. 



5IO INDEX 

[References are to PagesJ 

School Hygiene, chapter on, 400. 
Schools, 

consolidated and union, 224. 

and home, 61. 

industrial training in, 54. 

town, leads from farm, 12. 

pioneer, 2. 

and public health, 32. 

rural, importance of, 1. 

three types of, 228. 
School Year, length of, 22. 
Self-Control and Management. 188. 
Social Center, 

in district school, 37, 397. 

lack of, 247. 

in Illinois schools, 251. 

in Indiana schools, 253, 

school the natural, 250. 
Spirit of Teacher, chapter on, 115. 
Standards, 

new in schools, 4. 

in agriculture, 5. 

community, 162. 

old still prevailing, 45. 

of the recitation, 207. 
State Aid to rural schools, 360, 
State Superintendent, 

as educational leader, 485. 

and supervision, 343. 
Superintendent, County, 

assistants for, 339. 

and consolidation, 296. 

handicaps on, 332. 

opportunities of, 338. 

qualifications of, 337. 

as rural specialists, 484. 

and supervision, 331, 



INDEX 511 

[References are to Pages] 



Supervision, 

chapter on, 329. 

and county superintendent, 331. 

county the unit of, 331. 

industrial in the South, 340. 

lack of in rural schools, 329. 

limitations of, 332. 

outlook for, 344. 

through special supervisors, 339. 

and state supervisors, 344. 
Supervisors, special state, 344. 
Support, Financial, 

chapter on, 347. 

as a measure of appreciation, 347. 

of rural schools, 348. 

and state aid, 360. 

and taxation unit, 358. 
SwANEY, The John, School, 255. 

Tax, School, and consolidation, 286. 
Taxation, 

local, 359. 

various units of, 358. 
Teacher, 

and community, chapter on, 152. 

and educational ideal, 116. 

the, and consolidation, 297. 

and his health, 423. 

new demands upon, 133. 

and his growth, 121. 

insight of, 150. 

influence of, 20. 

and home, 159. 

the, as leader, 461, 480. 

as model, 149. 

and his philosophy, 162. 

and play, 443. 

professional training of, 140. 

and scholastic preparation, 131. 



512 INDEX 

[References are to Pages] 

Teacher — Continued. 

spirit of, US. 

and standards of conduct, 161. 

and his vocation, 128. 
Teaching, 

chapter on, 197. 

as an art, 141. 

changes in, 57. 

in consolidated schools, 232. 

and correlation, 91. 

point of contact in, 201. 

principles of, 199. 

new standards in, 460. 
Time, 

lost through useless drill, 49. 

saving of and correlation, 84. 

waste of, 24. 
Training, vocational, 93. 
Transportation, 

chapter on, 308. 

by automobile, 314. 

and consolidated schools, 294. 

and the driver, 317. 

public distrust of, 295. 

four important factors in, 308. 

the, route, 309. 

by school wagon, 315. 

Union Schools, definition of, 224, 229. 

U. S. Department Agriculture, and club work, 104. 

Vocational Subjects, 

in curriculum, 64. 

education, growth of, 95. 

training, chapter on, 93. 

Wagons, school, 315. 
Waste, 

elimination of, 232. 

of opportunity, 23. 
West Virginia, rural school supervision in, 339. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESb 



021 731 359 4 



IIJI'I li 111! 



,lii,i|Jli:' :;, 



iii;i:ii;Mi»<)h!i!iiii;i 



